Joan, 1985

The public is right not to read poetry because most of it means nothing to those who love poetry. The problem begins at school. For example, visual poetry allows the poem to leave the book and be translated into another dimension. It’s not just about changing media and writing verses on a wall or a fence, but about finding a new poetic structure between visualisation and semantics. In schools today they still don’t talk about it enough. And yet this really opens up wonderful perspectives for teachers. Most schools are locked into old ways, especially with regard to the teaching of contemporary literature; each year students, when they hear the names of the same authors, fail to understand. Visual poetry is of our time and, properly explained, can be an important element for channelling student curiosity. I remember how at the Fundació Miró, in 1986, during an exhibition of my visual poems and objects, kids discovered artistic possibilities they’d never thought existed and new guidelines for exercising the imagination and creative spirit.

Lladó, Ramon: ‘Entrevista a Joan Brossa: el poeta en estat d'aventura’, El Temps (11 June 1990), pp. 76–79