ArchiPoetry & Invisible Theatre
Theatres of Archimagination

archi-poetry makes room for poetry and architecture to meet

archi-poetry throws them together, an embrace – in question

archi-poetry precedes us – we awake in its wake

— “_ifesto” (2018)

In response to difficult questions, this event offers collaborative experiments aimed at renewing the architecture, theatre and poetry of the world. 

“What is poetry? The very soul of adventure… which creates a situation.”— Louis Sullivan 

The root of poetry (poiesis in Greek) simply means “making” — human making of almost anything: shoes, boats, buildings, characters in a play. Poiesis also names the art of poetry: spoken, written or sung. Understanding poetry as human making, makes the poetry of architecture easier to comprehend, but risks obscuring poetry’s meaningful, musical, and magical complexity.

“It’s not just building… it’s building worlds.” — John Hejduk

Architectural imagination suspends disbelief in the shared dream that human situations can embody and inspire poetic experience. Every act toward this goal can be moving and transformative. But just as poetry is indirect, and irreducible to reason, so the gist of architecture is open, and often not what it seems. Human architecture resists explanation, even as it invites and demands participation. One way to reopen human practices of worldmaking — architecture, theatre, poetry, teaching — is by risking more inclusive collaborations. 

“Poetry is in everything / the city / this table / the streets,

in each minimal, common, and ridiculous motion” — Fernando Pessoa

Grant Guy’s Invisible Theatre Events will bring humor, the play of senses, and the everyday, to this architecture and poetry conversation – helping us go beyond and between words. Language and metaphor may be the roots of imagination, but much that matters in the human world cannot easily be said! Archi-Poetry, like theatre, music, art, and dance, interprets and responds to the unspeakable arc and flood of things, reminding us the human condition is a tragicomic construct, and the invisible curtains we draw and raise are within, and between us!

“Poetry is everything that is exposed, in a veiled and searching manner” — Boccaccio

Collaboration gives rise to Archi-Poetry. Two fresh poems to be shared at the event are thanks to an adventurous crew of student (re)searchers at the Faculty of Architecture, University of Manitoba: Andria Langi, Max Sandred, Sabba Rezai and Alixa Lacerna.

ArchiPoems “Deluge” and “If a Bubble” start screening on October 1, 2021. 

We don’t have the link for that yet 

Join the circus of archi-poetry and theatre on October 2, 12:00pm EDT (11:00am CDT) [ 6pm Venice ]        

We don’t have the link for that yet 

Program Fee
Free