Tuesday, February 18, marks the opening of “Global Visual Poetry,” curated by Raffaella Perna at the headquarters of the Dicastery for Culture and Education.

The exhibition is designed to highlight the transnational nature of Visual Poetry, one of the most influential artistic movements of the late twentieth century, which inherited the legacy of the early avant-gardes and from the very beginning, embraced dialogue across cultures and nations. By transcending geographical and identity boundaries, Visual Poetry has fostered an inclusive and socially engaged art, an approach that Pope Francis might today describe as a “desire for fraternity.”

Featuring over two hundred works, the exhibition offers a cross-cutting perspective on the work of artists associated with the various verbal-visual experiments that emerged globally in the postwar period, from Concrete Poetry to Visual Poetry, from Object Poetry to New Writing. The exhibition aims to underscore the poetic coherence and shared sensibilities of artists involved in this movement, united by a utopian vision and a spirit of hope.