Poetry by Haroldo de Campos in São Paulo subway stations.

Camila Maciel
Reporter from Agência Brasil

São Paulo – "The people are the inventors of languages." This excerpt from the book *Galáxias* by poet Haroldo de Campos (1929-2003) reveals how the writer related to language. "Even in everyday uses, it's always a search for invention, for creation," explained Julio Mendonça, curator of the exhibition *Pontos Luminosos*, which recounts the trajectory of one of the creators of the Concrete Poetry literary movement (1950). The exhibition is free and runs until September 30th at the Paraíso metro station in the southern zone of São Paulo and the Corinthians-Itaquera metro station in the eastern zone.

Mendonça believes that the exhibition's location contributes to perpetuating the poet's vision that literature is a blend of "more sophisticated, research-based information, and information circulating among a wider audience." He explains that Haroldo de Campos was concerned with bringing the population closer to the world of cultivated language. "This was also a concern of concrete poetry in the 1950s: to produce a language capable of engaging with audiences in the modern spaces of the city," he explained.

"Pontos Luminosos," part of the "Encontros" project by the São Paulo Metropolitan Company (Metrô), presents key moments in the poet's trajectory, starting from the birth of Concrete Poetry. This movement integrates language with sound, image, and the meaning of words. From this period, visitors will be able to see, for example, the poems "nascemorre" and "mais menos." The organization believes that exhibiting the poems on large panels will further enhance the visual potential of the works.

The curator also highlights, among the items on display, the presentation of excerpts from the book Galáxias. "It is a creative and rich poetic prose with an innovative language that today has international repercussions, being considered a great work of the 21st century," he stated. This is one of the works that will be available for public reading at the exhibition space. Other titles such as Crisantempo: in the curved space one is born and The Education of the Five Senses will also be available in the reading areas.

In addition to the artworks, a posthumous tribute video to the writer will be shown, filmed at the Pontifical Catholic University (PUC) theater, featuring personalities from music and theater such as Caetano Veloso, Arnaldo Antunes, and Giulia Gam. The public will be able to view historical portraits of Haroldo de Campos taken by photographer German Lorca at the writer's home in the Perdizes neighborhood of São Paulo.

"All of this is presented succinctly, with carefully chosen material that allows for exhibition in a high-traffic public space, in a way that piques curiosity and motivates the public to learn more," Mendonça pointed out. Guilherme Yabesk, curator of the Encontros Project, explains that the environment for which the exhibition was conceived brings some specificity to the arrangement of the material. "One of the considerations is that the texts have dimensions that allow people in transit to relate to them. There's no point in thinking about dense texts, because it's a transient audience, but without losing quality," he justified.

Yabesk reinforces the project's role as an instrument for the democratization of culture. "The backdrop is audience development. It's a space that brings together people from all social levels and different educational backgrounds," he stated. Regarding the exhibition about Haroldo de Campos, he believes that in addition to paying homage on the tenth anniversary of the writer's death, the initiative further publicizes the poet's contribution to Brazilian and world literature.

Edited by: Carolina Pimentel