E.L.T. Mesens’s Verbovisual Collages in Italy in the 1960s. Exhibitions, Contexts, and Legacies

Édouard Léon Théodore Mesens (Brussels, 1903-1971) was one of the most polyhedral figures of Belgian avant-garde. In the mid-1920s he joined the Dadaist group first, and Belgian Surrealism later. Since the beginning of his artistic career, he chose the collage – firstly the photo-collage – as an anti-artistic medium capable of subverting visual representations and the traditional conception of art. Inspired both by Max Ernst and Kurt Schwitters’ works, he realised his collages with the aim to undermine the canonical dialogue between text and image. Mesens’ verbo-visual collages had a successful reception in post-war Italy. In the 1960s, gallery owners Carlo Cardazzo and Arturo Schwarz arranged, in Venice and Milan, some of the most important exhibitions dedicated to his verbo-visual collages. Today, however, no studies have investigated Mesens’ role, exhibitions and the circulation oh his artworks in the post-war Italian artistic milieu. By using a critic and historical approach, this essay intends to analyse unpublished archival materials (Mesens’ correspondence with artists as well as photographs of exhibition displays) and visual sources (Italian art magazines, catalogues, and Mesens’ artworks exhibited in the 1960s) with the aim to shed new light on Mesens contribution to verbo-visual trends that spread throughout Italy in the Sixties.