VIBRATO. Poetic Workshops. A playful and interactive exhibition.

What is poetry? “Music before all else,” said Verlaine. Poetry is sound. Language, turned into music, sets the senses ablaze. It conveys emotion like an electric wave. Vibrato. The poetic workshops invite you to discover poetry through listening. Poetry is, by its very nature, sonic and musical. It requires four ingredients: the voice, sound textures, melody, and rhythm.

“Vibrato” invites you to navigate through poetry with all your senses awakened. Wood that sparkles when brushed with a horsehair broom that recites a poem by Rimbaud to you, or a sea of poems to be sailed by ear, the helm between your fingers. “Vibrato” lets you hear Apollinaire, Éluard, Tsvetaeva, and Prévert. Each module of the exhibition explores voice, sound textures, melody, and rhythm through various workshops. It is funny, magical, sensual—to be experienced urgently and freely: poetry.

“Voice,” Moderato cantabile or vox populi, because depending on the voice that recites the poem, the emotion felt is not the same.

“Sound Textures,” through imitative harmony, alliteration, and assonance—the poetic use of words whose sounds evoke a landscape, an atmosphere, the noises of nature. And even when you do not understand the words used in the poem, the feeling still comes through… come and listen to a love poem in Chinese, Iranian, or Greek.

“Melody,” because a poem can convey emotion about any subject whatsoever. Choose an everyday object, scan it, and a poem by Rimbaud, Ponge, or Carême suddenly makes you see things differently.

“Rhythm,” taming the principle of suspense. The silence artificially inserted by the end of a line opens the door to poetic surprise. Listen blind to a scat-style poem, then rediscover and understand it in writing.