Nacho Montoto and Camilo de Ory win the First Poetry Contest: Haikús Eléctricos
The context was called by LABoral in collaboration with El Gaviero Ediciones and based around the exhibition 'Noches Eléctricas'
180 participants sent their haikus in only 17 days
Nacho Montoto and Camilo de Ory have been selected as the ex aequo winners of the First Poetry Contest: Haikús Eléctricos [Electric Haikus], which was called by LABoral in collaboration with El Gaviero Ediciones and based around the exhibition Noches Eléctricas [Electric Nights]. With this contest, the Art Centre commemorates World Poetry Day which is celebrated every 21st March (spring equinox), at the proposal of Unesco, aiming to promote the basic word and reflection on our times. In addition, the contest set out to merge different artistic languages, proposing a fusion between synthetic poetry and photons so as to harmonise with the poetic and artistic creation of the show conceived by the Centre National d’Art et de Culture Georges Pompidou, Paris, and co-produced by LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial in Gijón.
The 180 participants who sent their haikus in only 17 days -the period for participation in the contest- shows the success of the call. The compositions had to deal with subjects related to Noches Eléctricas: the electric world, illumination, pyrotechnics and the alteration of the principle of horizontal vision.
All of the poems sent by the participants have been published on LABoral’s Facebook page and will be exhibited in the Chill-out area at the Art Centre. In addition, the winning and finalist poems will be converted into visual haikus under the guidance of the Asturian production company Señor Paraguas, formed by Sofía Castañón and Juan Tizó, and subsequently broadcast on LABtv.
http://www.srparaguas.com/portada-es.htm
The Jury who selected the winners was made up by Javier García Rodríguez, Senior Lecturer of Literary Theory and Comparative Literature, literary critic and writer; Ana Santos and Pedro J. Miguel from publishing house El Gaviero Ediciones; and Lucía García, General Coordinator and Head of Public Programmes at LABoral. Their decision took into account “the stunning subject matter of the prize-winning haikus, and also the meta-poetic dialogue that appeared to be maintained by the two authors - the positive and negative poles and their connection in this contest have produced this ingenuity we call poetry”. Similarly, they also wished to highlight that many other submitted haikus “have lighted up thinking areas such as sparklers at night, contributing their power, personal vision and originality in the treatment of common experiences as well as their electric sparkle or poetic brilliance”. Based on this, they chose the following authors as finalists who have been listed below according to the scoring obtained: Juan Pardo Vidal, Carlos Mazario, José Miguel de la Fuente, Dora Méndez García and Julio Reija
To sum up, as well as commending the high level of participation in the First Poetry Contest: Haikús Eléctricos, the jury congratulates all of the contestants on “their ability to introduce the proposed themes in synthetic haiku verse, and for their boldness in investigating the connections between different disciplines and artistic themes, going beyond the limits imposed by tradition”.
In accordance with the rules, the prize awards 100 euros to be spent in LABshop (http://tienda.laboralcentrodearte.org/es/440-tienda/), a set of publications by LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial, as well as a LABoral Friend’s Membership card for the year 2011, giving free entrance to the exhibitions, invitations to all the Centre’s openings during the course of the year, free access to guided tours, special rates for workshops, courses and seminars, access to the Media Library and the choice of one catalogue from any of the exhibitions taking place during this year, among other advantages.
PRIZE-WINNING AND FINALIST HAIKUS
Camilo de Ory
¿No se desgasta
la luz al rebotar
en mil espejos?
[Isn’t light eroded
as it ricochets
into a thousand mirrors?]
Nacho Montoto
Apenas somos
Un haz de luz centrífuga
Pero qué luz
[We are just
A beam of centrifugal light
But what light]
Juan Pardo Vidal
Me dijo un físico
que la electricidad
no era corriente
[A physicist told me
that electricity
was not current]
Carlos Mazario Torrijos
Ni un robot tiene
las entrañas tan frías
como tus ojos.
[Not even a robot has
entrails as cold
as your eyes]
José Miguel de la Fuente
¿Arde Las Vegas?
Otro millón de voltios
En la retina
[Is Las Vegas burning?
Another million volts
In the retina]
Dora Méndez García
El rayo parte
la noche tenebrosa
Tiemblo de miedo
[The lightning sliced
the gloomy night
I tremble with fear]
Julio Reija García
Se electrifica
el ojo ante lo hermoso
y cambia de órbita
[The eye is electrified
before the beautiful
and changes its orbit]
