Blare Out's Unauthorized Poetry Performance at Venice Biennale

During the public opening of the 58th Venice Art Biennale on May 11, 2019, the collective Blare Out staged an unauthorized flash mob at the Giardini della Biennale. Twelve actors entered as ordinary visitors and began declaiming—eventually shouting—Andrea Zanzotto's 'Recitativo Veneziano,' a poem featured in Federico Fellini's film 'Casanova.' The group designated their intervention as the 'Poetry Pavilion,' aiming to insert poetry into every space of the Giardini. Conceived by Alessandro Burbank, the unsanctioned performance protested the lack of recognition for poetry compared to other disciplines like art, architecture, cinema, theater, and dance at the Biennale. It also highlighted Venice's fragility, threatened by mass tourism, large events, and neglect. Blare Out, founded in 2012 by former students of Ca' Foscari University and IUAV, describes itself as 'cultural artisans resisting the systematic stripping of content.' The performance was documented in images.