To mark the inauguration of the DIAL-A-POEM SWITZERLAND project, MAMCO, in collaboration with the Bains des Pâquis, invites you to a festive evening to discover the exhibition dedicated to the poet John Giorno and his poems by telephone.

In 1968, the American poet John Giorno (1936-2019) launched Dial-A-Poem. He integrated poetry into everyday life: it was broadcast by telephone, and performed rather than written. Almost 60 years after that first version, MAMCO, in collaboration with Giorno Poetry Systems (GPS), is organizing Dial-A-Poem Switzerland, bringing together voices from Switzerland’s different linguistic regions. Poets, writers, thinkers, theater and film personalities, lyricists: all have forged their means of expression from the word, its meaning and its sound.

The project was launched in the open air of the Bains des Pâquis, where a telephone was installed in an old telephone booth. Alongside the jetty, an exhibition on John Giorno is being held. It evokes the literary and artistic currents that ran through his career: the Beat Generation, visual poetry, the underground scene, Pop Art and the technological experimentation of the New York art scene. One of Geneva’s most popular venues thus becomes the stage for these literatures of yesterday and today, and offers as many gifts to those who pick up the phone or call the Dial-A-Poem Switzerland number.

From March 28 to May 10, daily from 8am to 8pm.