BRUNO NIVER BIOGRAPHY

How a poet from Paris got to Moscow

Bruno Niver was born in Paris. Since early 1990’s he has lived in Moscow.

Being inspired by a still existing tradition of the futurism poetry, preserving its revolutionary spirit and theatrical performance though eliminating the ideological colouring related to the communist revolution, Bruno Niver is writing his Song of the Space. During the poesoconcerts (a neologism created by Igor Severyanin) he is performing his cycle of space poetry where the author combines avant-garde and petrarcism, rhymed poetry and vers libre.
In his attempt to make poetry look like a theatrical performance, the poet gathers together musicians, actors, dancers and advanced designers. Once after a performance was over there was organized a fancy auction of the poet’s writings where he was first struck by the idea of calligraphic design of his poems. Bruno was captured by the idea and took up making full-colour paintings of different sizes where the words of poem could turn into colourful images.


How a poet turned into a poet artist

Bruno Niver kept on searching new forms of poetry and once made a calligraphic presentation of one of his short poems. Later on he also tries to colour his poem-paintings. Interconnection of colour and lettering established new relations between words and poetry acquired sudden visual meaning. Captured by the idea Bruno Niver made his paintings coloured and different in sizes. As for the spectators, they used their own imagination to see various images in poem-paintings. And just like a piece of abstract painting, a poem-painting started its own life and existed independently of poetry which visual form it represented. This artwork inspired Bruno Niver to create new poetic texts.

Since 2000 till 2008 the poem-paintings have been exhibited in such prestigious galleries as Pushkin Museum, Mayakovsky Museum, Embassy of France, Moscow Public Centre of Contemporary Art, at artist book fairs in 2006, 2007 and 2008 in the House of Artists, Museums of Contemporary Art in Krasnodar and Tula and private art galleries like Drevo and XXI century in Moscow; Agora in St. Petersburg; Delange in Paris, etc.

From poem-paintings to poem-dresses

The next stage in his creative activity was creation of a clothes collection Poetic Fashion based on his poem-paintings in cooperation with young Russian designers. A Russian-French project “Poetic fashion” was first demonstrated in April 2004 in Pushkin Museum in the context of the French Poetry Seasons which were initiated by Bruno Niver in cooperation with the Embassy of France and Moscow and Paris City Councils.
Since then the collections had been extensively displayed in private performances (jointly with Vaycheslav Polunin’s Chinese New Year show in the House of Actors, at the opening of Anton Chekhov Festival in the Aquarium Garden and Chinese Pilot Jao-Da club) and various contest with participation of ballet dancers, live jazz improvisation and declamation of poems imprinted on costumes and special decoration of poem-paintings.

Since 2008 Bruno Niver has been working on a ballet extravaganza Antivenera. Bruno Niver acts as the author of libretto, poem-paintings for theatrical scenery, poem-costumes (200 costumes) and author of song lyrics.

From poem-paintings to poem-ceramics

2007 — Bruno took up ceramics which makes it possible to sculpturize his poem-paintings. The unusual art pieces are decorated with glaze and modeling.
Recently Bruno Niver has decided to make his poetry tangible and voluminous: poetry via painting features ceramics. A sequence of thirteen paintings In the Arms of Wild Wind presents a new poem-ceramics technique painted in colour during travel along Nice and Corsica:

In the arms of wild wind,
In the abyss of the sea
I am pulling the strings of lyra...
And I am dancing with the ship
In the rhythm of absorbing nature;
And swaying in the waves,
The eternity is kissing me
Inebriated –       F
                                        
                                           R
                                               
                                                   E
                                                      
                                                           E
                                                             
                                                                 D
                                                                   
                                                                         O
                                                                         
                                                                               M
                       Is stretched above the azure sea!
                   G

             A

       L

F


A switch from poem-paintings to poem-ceramics introduced new forms, volume, relief which transformed the poem-paintings themselves. Besides, the glaze and special application technique as that of successive coating followed by burning makes the colours bright and lively and feature such iridescent colouring which is never present in pastel.
Poem-ceramics by Bruno Niver are often exhibited and are always accompanies by poem-paintings which three-D representations they actually are.


Actor and chansonnier

In 2002 during the Russian Seasons in Paris Bruno Niver tried his hand in acting, playwriting and directing when participating in the festival “Moscow on Stage” with a stage performance about three Russian poets of early 20th century, Alexander Blok, Vladimir Mayakovsky and Sergey Yesenin.

2006–2007 – Bruno was improving vocalism. Since then he has been both declaiming his poems and singing popular French chanson.

2007 —Bruno took up ceramics which makes it possible to sculpturize his poem-paintings. The unusual art pieces are decorated with glaze and modeling.

2008-2009 – a sequence of plays They Met in Paris based on the facts form Vladimir Mayakovsky, Louis Aragon, Elsa Triolet and Lilya Brik was successfully performed on stage of Vladimir Mayakovsky Theatre. The spectacles featured songs and poems in Russian and French performed by Bruno Niver. In 2010 the performance will be staged in Paris in the context of the culture year Russia – France.

GLOSSARY

Poem-paintings are full-colour graphic images of poems executed in a calligraphic manner on paper. In the image a viewer can enjoy the fanciful interweaving of letters forming the words which in their turn make up a brief poem in French.
Poem-paintings were exhibited in such prestigious sites as Pushkin Museum, Mayakovsky Museum, Embassy of France and private art galleries.

Here are the poet’s words:
 “When I draw I try to make a poetic rhyme graphic and visualize it. At the moment there is no any specific melody in my head, only some sounds which help my hands move, direct their energy and help selecting the proper colour. Initially I have no idea about what the work will be like, however, in the process of painting the poetic image and set of sounds that I fancy manage the process of imagination”

Poem-dresses are 3D images of poem-paintings.
During the show the poet-artist is declaiming and singing the poems imprinted on dresses.  It is a combination of several arts in one performance: live jazz improvisation, declamation of poems imprinted on dresses and special decoration with “poem-paintings”.

Bruno Niver
Painter-calligrapher, poet, singer, actor, teacher of the Lomonosov Moscow State University
(Moscow, Russia / Paris, France)