Signalism ( sh-Cyrl-Latn, Сигнализам, Signalizam; from ) represents an international neo-

avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

literary and art movement. It gathered wider support base both in former

Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...

and the world in the late 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s.

The origins and methods of Signalism

The beginning of Signalism dates back to 1959 when its founder and main theoretician

Miroljub Todorović Miroljub Todorović ( sr-cyr, Мирољуб Тодоровић; born 5 March 1940) is a Serbian poet and artist. He is the founder and theoretician of Signalism, an international avant-garde literary and artistic movement. He is also editor-in-c ...

started with his linguistic experiments. His main belief was that there can be no significant leap forward in poetry without revolutionizing its main medium – the language. The birth of Signalism in

Serbian literature Serbian literature ( sr-Cyrl, Српска књижевност, ''Srpska književnost''), refers to literature written in Serbian language, Serbian and/or in Serbia and all other Serbian diaspora, lands where Serbs reside. The history of Serbia ...

and

culture Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, Attitude (psychology), attitudes ...

, with its tendency to revolutionize other arts as well (visual, theater, comics, music and movies), came from the need to eliminate the spent models carried on by poetic and cultural traditions, as well as from the necessity to take on the challenges and spirit of the modern technological and electronic civilization. In its program ("Manifesto" and other guiding texts) as well as in its art pieces, Signalism made a clean break from the principles of neoromantism and late

symbolism Symbolism or symbolist may refer to: *Symbol, any object or sign that represents an idea Arts *Artistic symbol, an element of a literary, visual, or other work of art that represents an idea ** Color symbolism, the use of colors within various c ...

still governing Serbian literature. Its goal was set to radically change poetry both through content and form, and make it compatible with the contemporary times. Revolutionizing of the poetic language started with the introduction of the symbols, formulas and linguistic forms of the "hard" sciences (physics, biology, chemistry, mathematics, biochemistry and astronomy). Furthermore, the language was made visual by dispersing words and sentences into syllables and letters forming visually recognizable patterns, as well as by introducing non-verbal symbols into the text (drawings, photographs, graphs.) for the purpose of creating a collage of verbal and visual elements. This first phase of Signalism is often referred to as ''Scientism'', with the most prominent examples including the books "Planeta" (Planet, 1965) and "Putovanje u Zvezdaliju" (A trip to Starland, 1971) as well as poetry cycles "Belančevina" (Protein), "Kiseonik" (Oxygen), "Ožilište" (Nursery) and others in which the topics are Space, Time and Matter. In there for decade long research and creative pursuit that followed, Signalists significantly expanded cognitive boundaries and genre profile of modern Serbian poetry. Signalist poetry can be divided into two main forms: verbal and non-verbal. Verbal poetry consists of scientist, aleatoric (random), stochastic, technological, phenomenological, slang and apeironistic poetry. Non-verbal poetry subtypes include visual, object, sound and gestual poetry. Signalism made significant advances in prose (experimental novel and short story). There is also a number of significant Signalist children literature accomplishments. In visual art strides are made in

body art Body art is art in which the artist uses their human body as the primary medium.Oxford Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Art, Oxford University, p. 88 Emerging from the context of Conceptual Art during the 1970s, Body art may include performanc ...

mail art Mail art, also known as postal art and correspondence art, is an artistic movement centered on sending small-scale works through the mail, postal service. It developed out of what eventually became Ray Johnson's New York Correspondence School and ...

, performance and conceptual art. Three manifestos helped define Signalism as a neo-avant-garde movement that negates literal, artistic and cultural heritage, poetic and aesthetic conventions and canonical ways of creativity by insisting on creative experimentation – "Manifesto of scientific poetry" (1968), "Signalist manifesto (Regulae poesis)" (1969) and "Signalism" (1970). The movement was significantly boosted by the international magazine "Signal", inaugurated in 1970. Nine issues of "Signal" appeared between 1970 and 1973, presenting a number of domestic and international artists, as well as printing bibliographical data about the avant-garde publications all around the world. From 1973 until 1995 magazine could not be published, mainly for financial reasons. From 1995 to 2004 another 21 issues of "Signal" appeared. The new release of "Signal" revitalized the Signalist movement and brought an army of young artists into the movement in 21st century. On the work of Miroljub Todorović and Signalism movement that he had founded, three doctoral dissertations have been defended: Dr. Julian Kornhauser, Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland, 1980; Dr. Živan Živković, Faculty of Philology in Belgrade, 1991 and Dr. Milivoje Pavlović, University of Kosovska Mitrovica, 2002. Twenty monographs have also been published on the same subject.

Important international contributors of the "Signal" magazine

Raoul Hausmann Raoul Hausmann (July 12, 1886 – February 1, 1971) was an Austrian artist and writer. One of the key figures in Berlin Dada, his experimental photographic collages, sound poetry, and institutional critiques would have a profound influence on ...

, dadaist, the founder of Berlin

Dada Dada () or Dadaism was an anti-establishment art movement that developed in 1915 in the context of the Great War and the earlier anti-art movement. Early centers for dadaism included Zürich and Berlin. Within a few years, the movement had s ...

in 1918. *

Augusto de Campos Augusto de Campos (born 14 February 1931) is a Brazilian writer who (with his brother Haroldo de Campos) was a founder of the Concrete poetry movement in Brazil. He is also a translator, music critic and visual artist. Work In 1952 he founded ...

, one of the initiators of the

concrete poetry Concrete poetry is an arrangement of linguistic elements in which the typographical effect is more important in conveying meaning than verbal significance. It is sometimes referred to as visual poetry, a term that has now developed a distinct mea ...

. * Michele Perfetti, mail-artist, critic and theoretician of neo-avant-garde, wrote about Signalism on numerous occasions. * Adriano Spatola, Italian poet, editor of the experimental poetry magazine "Tam Tam". * Clemente Padin, visual poet and theoretician, wrote about "Signalism" numerous times, editor of the neo-avant-garde magazine "Ovum 10" in Uruguay) *

Julien Blaine Julien may refer to: People * Julien (given name) * Julien (surname) Music * ''Julien'' (opera), a 1913 poème lyrique by Gustave Charpentier * ''Julien'' (album), by Dalida, 1973 * "Julien" (song), by Carly Rae Jepsen, 2019 Places Un ...

, visual poet, performer, mail and conceptual artist. The editor of one of the best neo-avant-garde magazines "Doc(k)s" * Sarenco, visual poet, performer, anthologist, founder and editor of the Italian neo-avant-garde magazine "Lotta Poetica" *

Eugenio Miccini Eugenio Miccini (b. Florence 1925 – d. Florence 2007) was an Italian artist and writer, considered to be one of the fathers of Italian visual poetry. Biography Eugenio Miccini (1925 in Florence – 2007 in Florence) is considered to be one of th ...

, one of the most prominent Italian visual poets and theoretician of neo-avant-garde *

Richard Kostelanetz Richard Cory Kostelanetz (born May 14, 1940) is an American artist, author, and critic. Birth and education Kostelanetz was born to Boris Kostelanetz and Ethel Cory and is the nephew of the conductor Andre Kostelanetz. He has a B.A. (1962) fr ...

, visual poet, theoretician of neo-avant-garde, anthologist, editor of the "Assembling" *

Guillermo Deisler Guillermo Deisler (15 June 1940–21 October 1995) was a stage designer, visual poet and mail artist. In his country of birth, Chile, as well as during his long and difficult exile (since 1986 in the German Democratic Republic) his rich and ima ...

, Chilean visual poet, critic and anthologist *

Bob Cobbing Bob Cobbing (30 July 1920 – 29 September 2002) was a British sound, visual, concrete and performance poet who was a central figure in the British Poetry Revival. Early life Cobbing was born in Enfield. He attended Enfield Grammar School and ...

, English concrete poet and theoretician of sound poetry *

Eugen Gomringer Eugen Gomringer (born 20 January 1925 in Cachuela Esperanza, Bolivia) is a Bolivian-born Swiss concrete poet. He is head of the Institut für Konstruktive Kunst und Konkrete Poesie (IKKP) in Rehau, Germany. Between 1977 and 1990, he was a profe ...

, concrete poet and theoretician, one of the founders of concrete poetry *

Pierre Garnier Pierre Edgar Garnier (born 6 March 2002) is a French singer-songwriter and musician. He rose to prominence through his participation in the television show ''Star Academy'', winning the eleventh season on 3 February 2024, with 55% of the vote. ...

, concrete poet and theoretician, founder of French

spatialism Spatialism () is an art movement founded by Argentine-Italian artist Lucio Fontana in Milan in 1947 in which he proposed to synthesize colour, sound, space, movement, and time into a new type of art. Overview The main ideas of the movement were ...

, the space poetry *

Enzo Minarelli Enzo is an Italian given name derivative of the German name Heinz. It can be used also as the short form for Lorenzo, Vincenzo, Innocenzo, or Fiorenzo. It is most common in the Romance-speaking world, particularly in Italy and Latin America. ...

, main representative of the Italian "poesia visiva"—the visible poetry *

Keiichi Nakamura Keiichi is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: *, Japanese photographer *, Japanese manga artist *, Japanese diplomat *, Japanese music director *, Japanese molecular biologist *, Japanese butterfly swimmer *, Ja ...

, Japanese visual and mail-artist."Manifest of Signalism"
(Japanese, English, Serbian), Signalism @ Project Rastko, e-library *

Dick Higgins Dick Higgins (15 March 1938 – 25 October 1998) was an American artist, composer, art theorist, poet, publisher, printmaker, and a co-founder of the Fluxus international artistic movement (and community). Inspired by John Cage, Higgins was ...

, visual poet and theoretician of neo-avant-garde, editor of the publishing company "Something Else Press" * Dmitry Bulatov, Russian visual poet, theoretician and anthologist *

Sol LeWitt Solomon "Sol" LeWitt (September 9, 1928 – April 8, 2007) was an American artist linked to various movements, including conceptual art and minimalism. LeWitt came to fame in the late 1960s with his wall drawings and "structures" (a term he pref ...

, one of the most prominent American conceptualists *

Shozo Shimamoto was a Japanese artist. Having studied with Jirō Yoshihara, the future Gutai leader, from 1947, Shimamoto was a key founding member of Gutai along with Yoshihara and fifteen others in August, 1954. He was close to the leader Yoshihara and act ...

, a member of the famous Japanese neo-avant-garde group "Gutai" * Dr. Klaus Peter Dencker, visual poet and theoretician who put together one of the cult anthologies of visual poetry "Text-Bilder" * Ruggero Maggi, Italian visual poet, painter and mail-artist * Daniel Daligand, French visual poet, mail-artist and critic * Willi R. Melnikov, Russian visual poet, mail-artist and performer * Kum-Nam Baik, South Korean mail-artist *

On Kawara was a Japanese conceptual artist who lived in SoHo, New York City, from 1965 until his death. He took part in many solo and group Art exhibition, exhibitions, including the Venice Biennale in 1976. Early life Kawara was born in Kariya, Japan on ...

, American conceptual artist * Klaus Groh, neo-dadaist, the founder of the neo-dadaist center in Germany and author of numerous anthologies and collections of visual poetry, mail-art and conceptual art.

International anthologies containing works of Signalists

* Maurizio Spatola «Poesia Sperimentale», Turin, Italy, 1970 * Guillermo Deisler «Poesia Visiva en el Mundo», Antofagasta, Chile, 1972 * Klaus Peter Dencker, «Text-Bilder Visuele Poesie International Von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart», Koln, Germany, 1972 * Klaus Groh, «Visuel-Konkret-International», Gersthofen, Germany, 1973 * Fernando Millan and Jesus Garcia Sanches, «La escritura en libertad», Madrid, Spain, 1975 * Alan Riddel, «Typewriter Art», London, England, 1975 * G. J. De Rook, «Historische anthologie visuele poezie», Brussels, Belgium, 1976 * Josep M. Figueres and

Manuel de Seabra Manuel de Seabra (1932 – 22 May 2017) was a Portuguese writer, journalist, and translator. His translations were in Russian, Portuguese, Catalan and Esperanto. He and his wife, Vimala Devi, compiled the ''Portuguese-Catalan/Catalan-Portuguese ...

, «Antologia da poesia visual Europeia», Lisbon, Portugal, 1977 * Sarenco, «Poesia e prosa delle avangardie», Brescia, Italy, 1978 *

, «Mail Artists in the World», Paris, France, 1978 * Julian Kornhauser, «Tragarze zdan», Kraków-Wroclaw, Poland, 1983 * Enrico Marscelloni and Sarenco, «poesia totale 1897-1997: Dal colpo di dadi alla poesia visuale», Mantua, Italy, 1998 * Dmitry Bulatov, «Точка зрения. Визуальная поэзия: 90-е годы / Točka zrenija. Vizualnaja poezija. 90-e godi", Kaliningrad, Russia, 1998 Three anthologies were also published in Serbia: "Signalist poetry" (1971), "Concrete, visual and signalist poetry" (1975), "Mail-Art Mail-Poetry" (1980), as well as several collections and almanacs.

The most important authors and works of Signalism

Many poets, writers and painters accepted the basic concepts of Signalism, further developing and spreading the ideas of this Serbian (Yugoslav) neo-avant-garde movement. Besides the founder of Signalism

(''Kyberno'', 1970; ''The Pig is an Excellent Swimmer'', 1971; ''Bumpkin Shows Off'', slang poetry, 1974; ''Insect on the Temple'', 1978; ''Algol'', 1980, ''Textum'', 1981; ''Chinese Erotism'', 1983; ''Knock-Out'', 1984; ''I Mount Rocinante Again'', 1987; ''Water-Snake Drinks Water'', 1988; ''The Diary of Avant-Garde'', 1990; ''Electric Chair'', slang poetry, 1998; ''I’ve Just Opened my Mail'', 2000; ''It Walked Into my Ear'', slang stories, 2005; ''Blue Wind'', 2006; ''Slang Stories'', 2007;) important contributors to the theory and practice of Signalism include

Marina Abramović Marina Abramović ( sr-Cyrl, Марина Абрамовић, ; born November 30, 1946) is a Serbian conceptual and performance artist. Her work explores body art, endurance art, the relationship between the performer and audience, the limit ...

, Vlada Stojiljković, Zvonimir Kostić Palanski,

Slobodan Pavićević Slobodan "Pava" Pavićević ( sr-Cyrl, Слободан Павићевић; 28 August 1945), is a Serbian production manager and producer. He graduated from Faculty of Dramatic Arts, University of Arts in Belgrade. Pavićević worked with renown ...

(''Flowers’ Silicates'', 1973; ''Roadworks'', 1984), Milivoje Pavlović (''White Book'', 1974; ''The World In Signals'', 1996), Zoran Popović, Ljubiša Jocić (''Moonshine in Tetrapack'', 1975; ''What’s the Time'', 1976: ''Essays on Signalism'', 1994), Jaroslav Supek, Zvonko Sarić (''Overcoat until the Dawn'', 2001; ''Soul Catcher'', 2003), Bogislav Marković (''Altai Dust'', 2006), Ilija Bakić (''Prenatal Life'', 1997; ''New Babylon'', 1998; ''Protoplasm'', 2003; ''The Autumn of Gatherers'', 2007; ''To be Continued'', 2009),

Slobodan Škerović Slobodan Škerović (born 27 September 1954 in Belgrade) is a Serbian author, painter and philosopher, and a member of the international neo-avantgarde Signalism movement. Biography Škerović studied painting at the Faculty of Applied Arts in ...

(''Indigo'', 2005; ''All Colors of Arcturus'', 2006; ''Chimera or Borg'', 2008),

Žarko Đurović Žarko Đurović (; born 1 August 1961) is a Serbian Association football, football manager and former player. Playing career Đurović spent most of his playing career at Red Star Belgrade, winning two Yugoslav First League titles (1983–84 Yu ...

(''The World of Signalism'', 2002), Dušan Vidaković, Dobrivoje Jevtić, Dejan Bogojević,

Andrej Tišma Andrej Tisma was born in 1952 in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, Czechoslovakia in 1976. He has had solo exhibitions since 1972 (Novi Sad, Belgrade, New York, Milan, Seoul, Munich, Naples, San Francisco, L ...

, Dobrica Kamperelić,

Milivoj Anđelković Milivoj () is an old Slavic origin given name derived from elements: ''milo'' ("gracius, favour") + ''voj'' ("soldier, war"). Popular primarily in South Slavic states. The name may refer to: * Milivoj Ašner (1913–2011), a former police chief ...

Zoran Stefanović Zoran Stefanović (, sr-cyr, Зоран Стефановић, born 21 November 1969 in Loznica) is a Serbian author, publisher and cultural activist, best known as the founder of several cultural networks, including Project Rastko. His works w ...

and others.

Critical reception

Numerous domestic and international critics and theoreticians hold Signalism in high regard: Prof.

Miloš Bandić Miloš, Milos, Miłosz or spelling variations thereof is a mainly male Slavic given name and a surname. It may refer to: Given name Sportsmen * Miłosz Bernatajtys, Polish rower * Miloš Bogunović, Serbian footballer * Miloš Budaković, ...

: "Signalism is – after

Zenitism Zenitism ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Zenitizam, Зенитизам) was an avant-garde art movement in Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Yugoslavia that lasted from 1921 until 1926, first appearing in Zagreb from 1921 to 1924 and from 1924 in Belgrade ...

Surrealism Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...

and the movement of social literature – the next and autochthonous literary and artistic movement in Serbian literature of 20th century. At the same time, in contemporary Yugoslav literature and culture, Signalism is confirmed as an exclusive modern dimension and a separate artistic form and production. Without it all would probably be poorer and who knows how deprived." Oskar Davičo, famous writer: "For the first time from the appearance of Surrealism in the twenties, we can joyfully confirm that with exploration of Miroljub Todorović, Serbian poetry can again catch up with the genuine worldwide avant-garde explorations." Zoran Markuš, visual arts critic: "Signalism is our parallel phenomena within the brackets of the most extreme avant-garde and that explains its international expansion, approval and importance in certain artistic and intellectual circles." Dave Oz, Canadian multimedia artist: "True essence of Signalism is that it expects appearance of planetary consciousness."

Gillo Dorfles Angelo Eugenio "Gillo" Dorfles (12 April 1910 – 2 March 2018) was an Italian art critic, painter, and philosopher. Biography Born in Trieste to a Gorizian father of Jewish descent and a Genoese mother, Dorfles graduated in medicine, specializ ...

, Italian arts theoretician: "Signalism means a step forward, in relation to concrete poetry, visual poetry and the art of the sign." Prof. Milivoje Pavlović: "Thanks to Miroljub Todorović and the group that follows him, Signalism with its mainstream represents the arc which connects in a creative manner avant-garde aims from the period between wars with the contemporary epoch, bringing valuable innovations and connecting Serbian art with the modern world’s processes." (From the book ''The Keys of Signalist Poetics'')

The origins and methods of Signalism

Important international contributors of the "Signal" magazine

International anthologies containing works of Signalists

The most important authors and works of Signalism

Critical reception

See also

References

Further reading

Some works in English

Works in other languages

Signalism in lexicons

External links