Tonight No Poetry Will Serve by Alfredo Jaar offers a powerful reflection on the limits of language and the role of creative expression in times of tragedy. A lament for today’s darkness and a call to find the words to confront these tragic hours, the bold new public intervention displays the arresting title of a poem by Adrienne Rich (1929–2012), a figure of inspiration for Jaar since the 1980s, who observed the limits of words in times of unthinkable violence: “no poetry can serve to mitigate such acts, they nullify language itself,” she wrote in 2011.

Throughout November 2023, Alfredo Jaar and CIRCA commissioned a series of poetic dialogues, curated by Vittoria de Franchis, from international writers, thinkers and speakers. Giving voice to those who find themselves silenced or without words, the poems hope to achieve Rich’s ambition that creative expression can reconcile conflicting realities.

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Si Chiama Guerra

by Tomaso Binga

Tomaso Binga is the pseudonym of Bianca Pucciarelli Menna. Born Salerno in 1931, she lives and works in Rome. Bianca was a professor of Mass Media Theory and Method at the Academy of Fine Arts in Frosinone. As an artist, she used a male name to ironically and critically challenge the privileges of the Masculine world. Bianca’s practice focuses on textual-visual writing; she is among the leading figures of sound poetry and concrete poetry, with hundreds of appearances at festivals and cultural events, and worldwide exhibitions.

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Tonight No Poetry Will Serve: Poetic Dialogues

Hanne Lippard

Shirley Manson

Ivan Cheng

Annie Rockson

Jessica Mitrani

H Sinno

Matilde Cerruti Quara

Joseph Awuah-Darko

Alice Bucknell

Hala Alyan

Allison Grimaldi Donahue

James Notin

Sophie Jung

Nour Mobarak

bones tan jones

James Massiah

Sarah Johanna Theurer

Eileen Myles

Jahan Khajavi

Leah Abrams

Noah Kulwin

hannah baer