ILLUSTRATIONS
Pages from the publication
VisPo International. A Magazine of Contemporary Visual Poetry,
Near the Edge editions, Viareggio, 2026. Issue No. 2, May 2026. (Ed. by Vittore Baroni)
VisPo International. A Magazine of Contemporary Visual Poetry,
Near the Edge editions, Viareggio, 2026. Issue No. 2, May 2026. (Ed. by Vittore Baroni)
VisPo International is an assembling periodical dedicated to contemporary visual poetry (Vispo), conceived and edited by the Italian mail artist and visual poet Vittore Baroni (E.O.N. Archive, Viareggio, Italy) under the imprint Near the Edge editions. The first issue appeared in January 2026, inaugurating a series planned to produce no more than three or four issues per year. The second issue, dated May 2026, constitutes the document held in the Artpool archive.
The publication continues and extends Baroni's lifelong engagement with the international mail art and visual poetry network, which began in 1977 when he was introduced to the network by Guglielmo Achille Cavellini. Over nearly five decades, Baroni has organized dozens of collective projects, co-founded the multimedia group TRAX (1981), published 100 issues of the foundational mail art magazine Arte Postale! (1979–2009), and has consistently positioned his practice at the intersection of visual poetry, postal art, and experimental text. VisPo International is a direct heir to this tradition: a hand-assembled publication in a limited edition of 50 copies, each containing original artworks—not reproductions—contributed by participants worldwide.
The second issue is dedicated to Lamberto Pignotti (b. 1926), one of the founding figures of Italian visual poetry and Baroni's former professor at DAMS in Bologna, who turns 100 in 2026. Baroni's editorial introduction—"Never Satisfied!"—reflects with characteristic self-irony on the pleasures and frustrations of organizing an assembling magazine: the unpredictability of contributors, the tactility of original works, and the irreplaceable value of a hand-made paper publication in an era of digital saturation. The issue features 26 contributors from 9 countries, 8 of whom also appeared in Issue No. 1, with contributions including collages, typewriter poems, passport photo montages, anti-fascist word-paintings, asemic writing, and watercolors.
The issue also includes a tribute to Futurist theorist F. T. Marinetti—presented as "Hommage à Baroni Marinetti"—situating VisPo International within the longer history of typographic and verbal-visual experimentation from the Italian avant-garde to the present. The back cover carries the manifesto-like slogan "Don't make War, make Visual Poetry!", reflecting the explicitly political and humanistic stance of the publication in its response to current global crises.
The publication continues and extends Baroni's lifelong engagement with the international mail art and visual poetry network, which began in 1977 when he was introduced to the network by Guglielmo Achille Cavellini. Over nearly five decades, Baroni has organized dozens of collective projects, co-founded the multimedia group TRAX (1981), published 100 issues of the foundational mail art magazine Arte Postale! (1979–2009), and has consistently positioned his practice at the intersection of visual poetry, postal art, and experimental text. VisPo International is a direct heir to this tradition: a hand-assembled publication in a limited edition of 50 copies, each containing original artworks—not reproductions—contributed by participants worldwide.
The second issue is dedicated to Lamberto Pignotti (b. 1926), one of the founding figures of Italian visual poetry and Baroni's former professor at DAMS in Bologna, who turns 100 in 2026. Baroni's editorial introduction—"Never Satisfied!"—reflects with characteristic self-irony on the pleasures and frustrations of organizing an assembling magazine: the unpredictability of contributors, the tactility of original works, and the irreplaceable value of a hand-made paper publication in an era of digital saturation. The issue features 26 contributors from 9 countries, 8 of whom also appeared in Issue No. 1, with contributions including collages, typewriter poems, passport photo montages, anti-fascist word-paintings, asemic writing, and watercolors.
The issue also includes a tribute to Futurist theorist F. T. Marinetti—presented as "Hommage à Baroni Marinetti"—situating VisPo International within the longer history of typographic and verbal-visual experimentation from the Italian avant-garde to the present. The back cover carries the manifesto-like slogan "Don't make War, make Visual Poetry!", reflecting the explicitly political and humanistic stance of the publication in its response to current global crises.
