Visões de um poema sujo - Visions of a Dirty Poem

/Marcio Vasconcelos

Nearly five decades after its composition, Dirty Poem, written by Maranhão-born poet Ferreira Gullar during his exile in Argentina, remains strikingly relevant. In 2014, Maranhão-born photographer Márcio Vasconcelos began an extended engagement with Gullar’s work, seeking to reinvent, through photography, the places, people, and sensations described in the poet’s most emblematic poem. The project translates Gullar’s descriptions of São Luís into visual sensations, approaching the city through the atmosphere, memory, and intensity of the poem itself.

Gullar once stated in an interview: “I take what is dark, what is dirty, the old chairs, the old wardrobes, and I place a light on it. I go all the way down, to the bottom, and come back up bringing everything with me: what is poetry and what is not poetry.” At the beginning of this meticulous research process, Márcio sought to understand what São Luís looked like through the poet’s eyes, its tones, nuances, and atmosphere. It is this caricature-like realism in Gullar’s work, marked by childhood memories and scenes of everyday life, that Vasconcelos masterfully captures through his lens.

The project received the Marc Ferrez Photography Prize in 2014 and was presented in 2017 as an exhibition at Museu Afro Brasil, in Ibirapuera Park, São Paulo, curated by Diógenes Moura. The exhibition was accompanied by the launch of the book Visions of a Dirty Poem, published by Vento Leste Editora. After its presentation in São Paulo, the exhibition traveled to Galeria Cora Coralina, in Goiânia, the Paraty Photography Festival, and the Valongo Photography Festival, in Santos, São Paulo.

Since then, we have intended to present this remarkable body of work in São Luís, the city that inspired both artists, so that it may be experienced by the public of Maranhão.