La Phrase, une expérience de poésie urbaine

"We wanted to put literature outside", the authors wrote. But in the good sense of the word: plaster it on walls, on the sidewalks, on streets, on cement blocs, in prison, etc. Karelle Ménine and Ruedi Baur carried out the project "The Sentence". It was one of the major moments of Mons 2015 (the cultural capital of Europe). These 10 km of poetry, of philosophy and of revolt, were taken from Verlaine, Lacan, and even from the poet Fernand Dumont, who died in 1945 in Bergen-Belsen. They started in the train station and arrived there, like a letter train, and they scattered all over the town. As in the case of Desnos’ 18-meter long ant, others will think later this was fiction. Fortunately this book exists, describing the procedure, the administrative difficulties and the participation of unexpected characters such as Patti Smith.

• La Phrase, une expérience de poésie urbaine, by Karelle Ménine and Ruedi Baur, éditions Alternatives, 320 p., €19.