Altagor

Altagor (André Vernier, 1915-1992) was a French poet and "total artist" who evolved at the margins of the lettriste movement. Vernier was born in Joeuf, within the industrial working class of Lorraine shaped by the First World War. A genius stifled by a tyrannical father, this precocious and dreamy child with a prodigious memory taught himself to read. By the age of seven, he could recite classical poetry by heart and would wander into the surrounding deep forests to declaim a stream of invented language that he would pursue throughout his life: Kalaandre irone sigor... eriande akernoeuze. The pinnacle of his work seems to be transformal speech, an asserted orality standing in opposition to all cultural norms—hyper-abstract language that employs all rhythms and sounds of the vocal apparatus, transcending all his other media: music, painting, theoretical or social writings.