Muro Sur - Ekphrasis

Ja Ja Ja Nee Nee Nee

The literary figure of the ekphrasis is a verbal description of a visual work of art. It has been part of literature and art discourse for centuries, and it has been crucial to the exhibition I saw it by ear, initiated by Muro Sur in Rozenstraat in Amsterdam.

Discussions of ekphrasis always seem to produce fertile associations and repercussions when thinking about the crossed boundaries between art and literature, imagination, representation and the unfolding and reproducibility of certain knowledge.

With Ilse van Rijn, Martín La Roche and Arif Kornweitz, this episode explores the history of the figure of ekphrasis, the traditional difference between poetry and painting (tradition of paragone), and how more recent poets and writers approach this categorical separation, to shed light on the exhibition I saw it by ear.

Find a list of references mentioned in the show, and for further reading on our website www.jajajaneeneenee.com

Also, this episodes contains two pieces of the vinyl record Écfrasis. These pieces stem from 2018, when Muro Sur invited 29 Chilean artists to contribute a rhetorical description of piece of art they would like to exhibit in a show in Amsterdam. The resulting descriptions are collected on a double vinyl, created with Martín La Roche and Giancarlo Pazzanese.