Bidspirit auction | MELO E CASTRO (E. M.

MELO E CASTRO (E. M. de). [HIEROGLIFOS FRACTAIS E RETRATO EM PERFORMANCE]. S.l. s.d. [c. 1998-2005]. - MELO E CASTRO (E. M. de) [HIEROGLIFOS FRACTAIS E RETRATO EM PERFORMANCE] . S.l.: s.n., s.d. [c. 1998-2005]. 2 ff.: il.; 300×210 mm. A set of two sheets by EM de Melo e Castro (Covilhã, 1932 - São Paulo, 2020), one of the founders and main theorists of Portuguese experimental poetry, co-organizer of the two anthological notebooks of Experimental Poetry (1964, 1966) and co-organizer, with Ana Hatherly, of the founding volume PO.EX: Theoretical Texts and Documents of Portuguese Experimental Poetry (1981). From the 1980s onwards, Melo e Castro progressively explored the expressive potential of digital technology, developing ”infopoetry” and videopoetry as natural extensions of his experimental practice. The electrograph ”Fractal Hieroglyphs” (1998) presents six abstract geometric forms generated by computer - pen, hourglass, spiral, grid, parallel lines, fan - whose morphology simultaneously evokes signs of prehistoric writing and mathematical fractal patterns. The title articulates two worlds: the hieroglyph as writing predating the separation between image and text, and the fractal as a mathematical structure self-similar to scale – a synthesis characteristic of Melo e Castro's poetics, where letter, image, and number converge in a single gesture. The photographic portrait documents the author in a performance or public reading, with papers on stage at the microphone, a recurring image in records of his public appearances from the 1980s onwards. A highly regarded collection. ⚑ Auto-translated via Google Translate