Bernard Heidsieck

 
Bernard Heidseick (1928-2014) decided in the mid-1950s to break off from written poetry, and to bring it outside of books. He opposed passive poetry to active poetry, to an “on its feet” poetry, in his own words. Starting in 1955 he was one of the founders of Sound Poetry, and in 1962 of Action Poetry. As early as 1959 he used a tape recorder as an additional means for writing and retransmitting, opening his research to new experimental fields.
While remaining concerned with semantics, Bernard Heidseick became inc is reasingly independent from the constraints of language. He explored all its formal aspects, either by spatializing the text in his written scores, or by the presence of his body in space. He gave sound a formal dimension, notably through an exceptional diction based as much on breathing as on articulating perfectly or on constantly renewing the inflections of his voice.
As the years went by he reinvented his writing in order to render our daily life more accurately. Our social, political or economical universe, through its main events, as well as through its extreme ordinariness. In 1955 he developed his first Score-Poems. He then worked continuously on series, with the 13 Biopsies between 1966 and 1969. From 1969 to 1980, he created the 29 Passe-Partout (Catch-alls). From 1978 to 1986, he wrote Derviche/Le Robert (Dervish/Le Robert) composed of 26 sound poems. Then, beginning in 1988, Respirations et brèves rencontres ( Respiration and Brief Encounters) (60 poems created from the archives of recordings of artists' breathing).
At the same time he organized in 1976 in Paris at the Annick Le Moine Studio the first International Festival of Sound Poetry, and along with Michèle Métail, the International Festival of Sound Poetry in Rennes, at Le Havre and in Paris at the Centre Georges Pompidou. For many years he helped organize the Polyphonix Festival, which he presided for a while. He has organized over 540 public readings of his texts in twenty different countries.
 
2024
French edition
Les presses du réel – Literature – Al Dante
forthcoming
A collective work examining fifty years of poetic activity by Bernard Heidsieck (1928-2014), a central figure in sound poetry and performance poetry, a major poet of the second half of the 20th century, along multiple axes.
Bernard Heidsieck - Abécédaire n° 6 - « Clef de Sol » – Été 2007
2015
Frac Franche-Comté - Alphabet series
Bernard Heidsieck's graphic ABC.
Bernard Heidsieck - Poésie action - Variations sur Bernard Heidsieck (livre / DVD)
2015
bilingual edition (English / French), original version, English / French subtitles
a.p.r.e.s editions - Variations on...
Box set including a book and a film on DVD.
Bernard Heidsieck - Vaduz (map)
2014
various
currently out of stock
Numbered edition of Bernard Heidsieck's famous map of Vaduz.
Bernard Heidsieck - Tapuscrits - Poèmes-Partitions, Biopsies, Passe-Partout
2013
French edition
Les presses du réel – Literature – Misceallenous
Villa Arson
Bernard Heidsieck's typescripts.
Bernard Heidsieck - Biopsies (+ CD)
2009
French edition
Al Dante - Poetry & Literature
Publication gathering all the texts and recordings of the Biopsies series (1965-1969).
Bernard Heidsieck - Passe-Partout (+ 2 CD)
2009
French edition
Al Dante - Poetry & Literature
Publication gathering all the texts and recordings of the Passe-partout series (1969-2004).
Bernard Heidsieck - Poèmes-Partitions – Précédé de Sitôt dit (+ 2 CD)
2009
French edition
Al Dante - Poetry & Literature
This publication brings together the sound poet's first work, published in 1955, as well as the entire Poèmes-Partitions series (1955-1965). It also includes 2 CDs with all the Poèmes-Partitions recorded in their time by the author.
Bernard Heidsieck -
2008
French edition
Al Dante - Poetry & Literature
This exhibition catalogue gathers together the visual works—collages, drawings and installations—of three major French experimental poets.
Bernard Heidsieck - Vaduz (+ CD)
2007
French edition
Al Dante - Poetry & Literature
This poem by Bernard Heidsieck starts with Vaduz, the capital of Lichtenstein, and from it, lists all the people and ethnic groups of the world: a great humanist work and an extreme experience of poetry-action. The publication features a recording of the poem, read by Bernard Heidsieck.


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