Catálogo conceitual : poéticas em torno do silêncio

Abstract

In the mid-60s, conceptual art appears as a tendency recognized for using a series of innovative practices and methods in the art world. Concerned with the concept beneath artistic productions, instead of the object of art in itself, the artists found in language the instrument for the most representative productions of the movement. Ironically, many artists did not intend to highlight the importance of words, but to silence them. The silence in these conceptual art works is created around the blank page, the obliteration of language and the gestures. Drawing upon Susan Sontags thoughts, in A estética do silêncio, silence was used by artists as a means to transform art, a reluctance to communicate within the standards. The aim of this research is to present a brief catalogue of silenced/silent conceptual art works. Starting from an interest in exploring the strategies through which these works were silenced, the research presents a reading of what could at first be considered illegible. To direct this reading, the analysis is based on books such as Reading the illegible and No medium, by the American writer and poet Craig Dworkin. The conceptual poems/works are analyzed considering elements that allow reading, which Dworkin calls substrate, supported by other literary pieces, so that it is possible to notice in them a poetics with attributes analogous to those that characterize a literary work.