Rodríguez Serra, Ernesto (poems) and Francisco Méndez Labbé (artist)

[AMEREIDA – UTOPIAN CHILEAN ARCHITECTURE AND EXPERIMENTAL POETRY] Aritmos [Arithms].

Valparaíso: Ediciones Universitarias de Valparaíso, 1969. Quarto (31.5 × 23.5 cm). Unbound gatherings housed in original printed cardboard folder; 24 leaves printed to rectos and 2 plates with full-page reproduced drawings. Folder with overall wear, torn folds, and stains; only a few leaves with tiny stains; one leaf with crease mark; else good or better. Item #55097

Rare and early folder with lyrical texts by the philosopher Ernesto Rodríguez Serra, who taught at the Faculty of Architecture in Valparaíso at the time. His texts are accompanied by drawings by the artist Francisco Méndez Labbé. The two were linked not least by their participation in the Amereida project. The name of this interdisciplinary Chilean initiative is a neologism combining the words “America” and “Eneida” (The Aeneid). The aim was to stage a South American Aeneid; a journey as a founding myth, a “geopoetic study”, which resulted not only in the “Amereida” poem and travel diary written jointly by the poets, but also in cartographic reinterpretations. Not only was the geographical south reinterpreted as the geographical north, but attempts were also made, for example, to transfer the constellations to the geographical conditions and travel routes. As a result, the journey took place off the asphalted roads through inhospitable country. Poetic readings, performances, and happenings of all kinds were to take place along the route, creating the verses and stanzas of a South American founding epic. Ten poets, artists, architects and philosophers embarked on this expedition. Godofredo Iommi believed that poetry should be developed by everyone together and not just by one subject. The journey was intended to set collective poetic action in motion. The “Amereida” ultimately led to the “Ciudad Abierta” project, which was opened as an experimental space of the Catholic University of Valparaíso in 1971.

“Ciudad Abierta” (open city) was an interdisciplinary architecture project, jointly developed by poets, architects, and artists north of Valparaíso. The starting point of this architectural experiment was the idea of understanding architecture as a playful form of the lyrical, as a language that has become space. Analogous to the openness of poetic language, its ambiguity and its processual changeability, the architecture of the “Ciudad Abierta” should also be one that is in a state of permanent change, in a constant state of emergence. Just as language is always being “built on” through speaking and writing practice, so too should the architecture of the “Ciudad Abierta” be constantly changing in common practice. The architect and theorist Alberto Cruz (who initiated the project together with the poet Godofredo Iommi) did not see architecture as a static construction planned and built for eternity, but rather, like language, as a precarious, organic correlation. Thus, “Ciudad Abierta” was literally built on sand. The open city was to be nothing other than a patchwork that had to be constantly rebuilt, improved and rethought.(Cf. Mário Gomes. Ein Roadtrip ohne Road: Poetik der Architektur, Online text archive, Zurich: Diaphanes 2017.)

One of only 500 printed copies.

As of April 2025, OCLC lists only one copy worldwide (Biblioteca Nacional de Chile).

Price: €800.00

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