Viktor Goppe

(1962 - )               [

15796

Aleksandr Pankin

Число Сергея Бирюкова

Numbers of Sergei Biryukov

Moscow: Goppe, 2019

210 x 298 mm. 20 pages

Edition 50. Copy no. 42.

The complete set is unique.

Folder( 345 x 330 mm.) containing printed matter in relation to an evening with recitings by Sergei Biryukov. Contents: 1. Paper leporello by Aleksandr Pankin in a folder (262 x 130 mm.) by Viktor Goppe. Edition: 50. Copy no.42. 2. set of 5 prints and collages by Goppe. 3. four loose sheets with text 4. Flyer 5. set of five photographs with Biryukov, Pankin and Goppe.

This book is an exclusively original artefact, in the experiments of modern designers and in the legacy of avant-garde classics. Goppe limited himself to creating a rather recognizable, albeit very conditional portrait of the author - poet and philologist, president of the International Academy of Zaum Sergey Biryukov. On the dust jacket, the unmatched futuristic poetry reciter is depicted with a microphone in his hand. The leporello is inventively designed, unusual, but logically constructed by the artist Aleksandr Pankin. Only a few short texts of Biryukov are included in the book, but the most important thing here is the way of their graphic interpretation. Poems written on a black background in white block letters, reproduced samples of visual poetry, mathematical calculations, photographs of the author - all these elements of the book ensemble are clearly balanced and structured. Pankin is extremely consistent in his method of “geometric visualization of literature” and even the name of the book should be understood literally: the artist really takes to display numbers characterizing the personality of the author, to give him a “digital passport”. For this, the number of letters in the name and patronymic of Biryukov is divided by the number of letters in his last name. According to Pankin, this approach makes it possible to visually reveal the hidden harmony of “abstruse” word-making, the clear ordering of the seemingly chaotic pile of syllables, and the absence of random and optional elements in this system. (From a review by Dmitry Fomin).