Guest of the ilb 2003
The poet Michèle Métail was born in Paris in 1950.
She studied German Language and Literature and Sinology and wrote a
dissertation on variations in form in classical Chinese verse.
Métail from time to time writes poetry using formats taken from other
media. In her book 'Les horizons du sol' (1999) she describes
geological formations using a single sentence without any
punctuation. In 2001, as a guest of the DAAD’s Berlin artist’s
program, she wrote fragmentary snapshots of the city using a 10 x 15
photo format (which means 10 lines, each with 15 letters). The
translator Elfriede Czurda translated them into German in the fictive
10 x 17 photo format in order to do justice to the particularities of
the German language ('Gehen und Schreiben. Gedächtnis-Inventar',
2002). The diary-like notes are supplemented with photos, which
also adhere to a certain structure. They are illustrations of
buildings, for the most part of glass buildings, in which other
buildings are reflected and whose architectonic forms are linear and
cage-like. The 24 illustrations and 36 texts, which in turn refer
to the given film formats, are juxtaposed with one another, but in
terms of contents do not refer to one another. As in previous
works, a polyphonic statement emerges. The group Les arts
contigus, which she founded with Louis Roquin, is also interested in
the confrontation between various forms of expression such as
sculpture, literature, music, dance, performance, and installations.
In addition to always being interested in form, Métail’s verse is
characterized by an interest in spoken and visual forms that attempt to
explore time, space, and sound. Since 1973 many of Métail’s poems
have only been published orally in so-called publications orales. In
her readings, which are frequently accompanied by slide shows and
performance elements, she musically modulates her voice by varying the
tempo, nuance, and tone. The text functions like a score and the
reading as the final creative stage in the process. The
conviction that "articulating the word in the room represents writing’s
highest level” has brought the author to countless readings and
exhibitions in Europe and Canada. Her scholarly research is
dedicated to older Chinese verse, which she also translates into
French. Métail, who has received numerous awards for her work, was
Samuel Fischer Visting Professor of Poetry at the Free University in
Berlin, in 2005. She lives in Lasalle, France.
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