Artist in Residence at The European Graduate School / EGS.

Alessandro De Francesco (b. 1981) is a poet, artist, and essayist, as well as the founder of the Language Art Studio. His work has been published, presented, and exhibited in multiple international contexts. In addition to being an artist in residence at The European Graduate School / EGS since 2008, he has held residencies at STEIM Amsterdam (2007 and 2009), at the Mulhouse Center for Contemporary Art (2012) and for the BeHave – Pubic Art Experience programme in Luxembourg (2015-2016). He also founded and directed the poetry writing atelier at the LILA Department of the École Normale Supérieure in Paris.

Born in Pisa, Alessandro De Francesco holds an MA summa cum laude in Philosophy from the University of Pisa and a PhD summa cum laude in Poetics and Literary Theory from the University of Paris-Sorbonne, which he defended under the direction of Professor Georges Molinié. He is currently based in Brussels and Basel. De Francesco also studied philosophy and comparative literature at the Écoles Normales Supérieures of Paris and Lyon, where he collaborated with the Centre d’études poétiques, directed by Jean-Marie Gleize, and at the Technische Universität Berlin. Trained as a musician as well, he plays bass professionally, has attended the Siena Jazz International Master Classes, and has studied composition and electronic music at IRCAM Paris, the Accademia Chigiana in Siena, and the Centro Musica & Arte in Florence. Internationally regarded as a significant and ground-breaking poet, artist, and theoretician, Alessandro De Francesco has taught creative writing at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris and the University of Paris-Est Créteil, as well as literary theory at the Universities of Paris-Sorbonne and Basel, and Italian contemporary poetry at the École Normale Supérieure in Lyon. He currently teaches at the Basel Academy of Art & Design, the Bern University of the Arts, the Ecole de Recherche Graphique and La Cambre Visual Arts, both in Brussels. His work as an artist, which he describes as “Language Art” and “poetry as artistic practice,” focuses on the interaction between poetry, sound art, installation, digital writing, and page design.

Since his very first works, Alessandro De Francesco has sought to deconstruct the borders dividing poetry and contemporary art on the one hand, and lyrical and experimental approaches to writing on the other hand. He has done so through a permanent redefinition of a series of key themes: non-linear and multidimensional narratives, perception, emotion, childhood, possibility and events, information and media, and technology. His poetry and artistic work are haunted by questions relating to the unspeakable and the unknown. Under the aegis of Language Art, Alessandro De Francesco conceived the innovative practices that he calls “reading environments” and “augmented writing” (www.augmentedwriting.com). These practices, spanning genres ranging from poetry to the sonic, visual, and conceptual arts, describe De Francesco’s critical use of technology and digital media within his poetic and artistic work. A sort of iconoclastic double of augmented and virtual realities, his “reading environments” and “augmented writing” consist of sonic and visual enhancements of multiple textual materials by means of reading digital voice processing and writing design software.

Alessandro De Francesco is a unique artist because he bases all of his work on the elaboration of language. He creates volumes of phrases and architectures with words on paper, constructions of virtual writing resonating in space through voice processing. His oeuvre is radical because the text, written or spoken, is the sole medium. His work is often based on repetitions of poetical forms that he processes in multiple languages, exploring the inscription of the work of art in culture, time, and space, thus reacting against the hyper-presence of the image in contemporary societies.

Alessandro De Francesco has published the following books: Lo spostamento degli oggetti (2008); da 1000m (2009); Redéfinition (2010); Ridefinizione (2011); Augmented Writing (2013); La vision à distance (in 2015); Continuum. Writings on Poetry as Artistic Practice (2015); Remote Vision. Poetry 1999-2015 (2016); Three Poetic Engines (2016); La visione a distanza (2018), ((( (2020). His poetry has been translated into English, French, German, Spanish, Japanese, Dutch, and Swedish and has been published in poetry journals worldwide. He is also very active as a theoretician and translator and has published several articles focusing on Western poetry, aesthetics, and conceptual writing from the 19th century until today, as well as translations from Italian, French, German, and English poetry and theory.

Alessandro participated in several shows including the Biennale Gherdeina VI, 2018 (curator: Adam Budak); Poetry as Artistic Practice (solo, Anima Ludens, Brussels, curators: François de Coninck and Gregory Lang), 2017-2018; Modus Operandi, Société, Brussels (curators: LabAu and Gregory Lang), 2017; Art Contest, Brussels Museum of Art & Design ADAM, 2016-17 (curator: Valérie Boucher); Xerox, Société, Brussels, 2016 (curators: LabAu and Gregory Lang); BeHave, Belval, Luxembourg, 2016 (curators: Delcroix & Pinsky); Regionale 16, Kunst Raum Riehen, Switzerland, 2015-16 (curator: Kiki Seiler-Michalitsi); Indent, Société, Brussels, 2015 (curators: LabAu), TU35, Pecci Centre for Contemporary Art, Prato, 2015 (curator: Chiara Ruberti); Art by Telephone…Recalled, La Panacée – centre de création contemporaine, Montpellier, 2014 (curators: Sébastien Pluot & Fabien Vallos); Chrématistique, CNEAI – Centre national de l’estampe et de l’art imprimé, Chatou, 2014 (curators: Fabien Vallos & Jérémie Gaulin). As of 2020, he is currently preparing two new solo shows and a performance project at the Kunstmuseum Basel.

Alessandro De Francesco has lectured and performed all over Europe and North America, including The Berlin University of the Arts (2006, 2007), Ausland (Berlin, 2007), the E-Media Centre (Tallinn, 2007), The European Graduate School (2008, 2012-2015), La poésie/nuit (Lyon, 2008), Casa delle Letterature (Rome, 2008), Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris, 2009, 2010), San Francisco State University (2009), Outpost for Contemporary Art (Los Angeles, 2009), La scène poétique (Lyon, 2009), Foundry (London, 2009), Galerie Martine Aboucaya (Paris, 2012), The Kelly Writers House at U-Penn (Philadelphia, 2013), CUNY Graduate College (New York, 2013), Gaîté Lyrique (Paris, 2013), La Panacée (Montpellier, 2013), Actoral (Marseille, 2014), Fondation Louis Vuitton (Paris, 2014), Strasbourg Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (2015), Personal Structures, Venice Biennale (2015), Kunsthalle Basel (2016), Fondation Lafayette Anticipation (2016), Brussels Museum of Art & Design (2016), CNEAI (2017), Basel Poetry Festival (2018), LUMA Foundation Arles (2018), Maison des arts de Schaerbeek (2019), etc.