«The poet is a pretender. / He pretends so deeply / that he even pretends he is the pain / the pain he feels for good». If considered from an etymological perspective, these verses, written by the great Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa, are closely related to the poetry of Domenico Brancale. The act of «pretending» is giving shape to pain, moulding it, and restoring it to that auroral crucible of the poetic metamorphosis that is the word. Cleansing pain from pain – atom of eternal. «We live without feeling the ground under the steps».
In Brancale’s verses, we see a clear consonance with Celan’s Atemwende, which becomes the profound note that tunes his poetic workshop (A turn of breathing).
Marked by thunder, his words burn with thirst, yearning for the instant that is already gone. We see Phlebas the Phoenician walking through seabeds, as in the Song of Aengus the Wanderer – a searing metonymic litany of desire. Brancale’s poetry belongs to his native land: the devouring light of the Southern Italy. And it resonates enigmatically in the immaterial watercolors of Miquel Barceló, floating in the book with unprecedented telluric force, as fractures that recompose the primordial image-word bond. We witness land and water in their unfathomable mutual belonging. Dovunque acqua sia voce. As written by the great Russian master, Pavel A. Florenskij: «The divine is only the inner side of water. Water: the outer visibility of the divine».
Domenico Brancale (Sant’Arcangelo, 1976) poet and performer. He has written: L’ossario del sole (Passigli, 2007), Controre (effigie, 2013), incerti umani (Passigli, 2013), Per diverse ragioni (2017), Scannaciucce (Mesogea, 2019) that included all his dialect poems, Dovunque acqua sia voce (Edizioni degli animali, 2022). He edited Cristina Campo In immagini e parole and has translated Cioran, J. Giorno, Michaux, C. Royet-Journoud, G. Scelsi, Artaud, J. Roubaud. He is one of curator of the editorial series of international poetry “Le Meteore” for Ibis and “Prova d’Artista” for Galerie Bordas. His performances include: Questa deposizione rischiara la tua assenza (Galleria Gasparelli, Fano 2009), un sempre cominciamento (galerie hus, Paris 2012), Nei miei polmoni c’è l’attesa (Galleria Michela Rizzo, Venezia 2013), incerti umani (Festival Città delle 110 scale, Potenza, 2013), Se bastasse l’oblio (MAC Lissone, 2014), Langue brûlé (Palais de Tokyo, Paris 2014), Scannaciucce – a praise of Donkey (Matera, 2019), Non dire a sordo (Galleria de’ Foscherari, 2022).annaciucce - una lode dell’Asino (Matera, 2019), Non dire a sordo (Galleria de’ Foscherari, 2022).
