El context portuguès: Poesia experimental amb Brossa (o no)

Experimental poetry is transnational and networked. Although there is no record of Brossa ever visiting Portugal, Portuguese poets acknowledge Brossa’s experimental and visual works, many of which predate those of Portuguese experimental poets. There is information on communication exchanges between Portuguese poets and experimentalists from Spain (Julio Campal), France (Pierre Garnier, Henri Chopin), Italy (Nanni Balestrini, Adriano Spatola), the UK (Dom Sylvester Houédard), Denmark (Hans-Jørgen Nielsen), and even Brazil (Pedro Xisto, Haroldo de Campos, Edgard Braga). However, there is no information regarding exchanges with the Catalan Brossa. Still, this does not preclude similar forms of expression among agents who never worked together. In fact, there are traces of parallel instances from possible negotiations with Brossa in the Portuguese context. Analogous forms of expression suggest that object-poems and text-image relations constituted common acts of resistance in Portugal as in Catalunya (Spain). In both countries, polemics and irony were art tools towards openness and interaction. Hence, this study establishes a dialogue between images, proposing a comparative visual essay to understand how the Portuguese cultural context established intermedial connections that are synchronous to Brossa’s.