INI Digital Collage Images

INISMO, Italy's newest Avant garde movement in the ARTS was initiated in Paris in 1980, founded by Gabriele-Aldo Bertozzi and Laura Aga-Rossi. See their INI website (in Italian) at: www.angelus.it

See Angelo Merante's website: www.angelfire.com/ar/inismo

See the INI USA Northeast Kingdom website: www.wesingfire.tripod.com/iniusa

"INI On Wheels," the cover illustration for "Berenice"

an INI Digital Collage by Maryclaire Wellinger

COVER ILLUSTRATION FOR "BERENICE", NOV 2002

INI Digital Collage by Maryclaire Wellinger

Maryclaire's Original Digital Collage, "INI ON WHEELS",

(below) the cover illustration for the Italian Avant Garde

Comparative Literary Journal, "BERENICE" , its November 2002 issue.

WHAT IS "INI"?

Italy's Newest Poetic Avant-Garde: Inismo by David W. Seaman, Ph.D.

Department of Foreign Languages
Georgia Southern University
Statesboro, GA 30460-8081
dwseaman@gsvms2.cc.gasou.edu

When one receives a letter or card from Gabriele-Aldo Bertozzi, the closing salutation is likely to include a phrase like "saluti ininterrotti", going out of the way to include a word with the succession of letters, I N I. This indicates the absorption of inismo in the mind of one of its founders. Inismo, ini, or I.N.I., comes from the terms, Internazionale Novatrice Infinitesimale, concepts that help define this avant-garde movement. As Angelo Merante points out in his essay, I domini operativi degli inisti,1 all three of these words suggest "extension", indicating the desire of inismo to go beyond the conventional. These terms invite some elucidation.

INI Terror Attack Kit, Terror Code Bright Orange:

A Series in Five Panels March, 2003

INI Terror Attack Kit, Panel #1

from the kitchen of Michelle and Tom Ridge

List of Items, March 2003

Iniville, Pennsylvania

INI Terror Attack Kit, Panel #2

from the kitchen of Michelle & Tom Ridge, Iniville, Pennsylvania

March, 2003

INI Terror Attack Kit, Panel #3

From the Kitchen of Michelle and Tom Ridge,

Iniville, Pennsylvania, March, 2003

INI Terror Attack Kit, Panel #4

Apron from the Kitchen of Michelle and Tom Ridge

Iniville, Pennsylvania March, 2003

INI Terror Attack Kit, Panel #5

Diamond Studded Cross from the Private Collection

Of Michelle Ridge, Iniville Pennsylvania, March 2003

"INI Bartender"

an INI Digital Collage by Maryclaire Wellinger

Internazionale is obvious, and it refers not only to the goal of expansion, but also to the implantation of inismo in Spain, Argentina, and the United States.
Novatrice is a Latinized version of "innovatrice", and I suspect that this term was influenced by the French lettristes, who use it.
Infinitesimale is also a term the lettristes have promoted; for them and the inisti it is not to be confused with our English concept of infinitesimally tiny, but rather it means leading to an infinity that is unknown and difficult to imagine. One can readily see, therefore, what the role of the avant-garde poet is: to lead the reader toward discovery of that vision beyond the finite world.

"INI Drivers' Handbook, State of INI"

an INI Digital Collage by Maryclaire Wellinger

Inismo was initiated in Paris, early in 1980, by Bertozzi and Laura Aga-Rossi, and they were soon joined by Giulio Tamburrini, Angelo Merante, Moreno Marchi, and Antonino Russo. The first manifesto, Qu'est-ce que l'I.N.I. - Che cos'è l'I.N.I. was published in Paris and Rome in September of 1982, and the first exhibition of ini works was the same month in Paris, at the Salon de la Lettre et du Signe. This salon is a lettriste show, which suggests the ini relationship to the French movement. In fact, the first manifesto will declare, "INI was foreseen by Futurism, by Dada, and announced by Lettrisme."

Changing a Flat Tire

INI Digital Collage by Maryclaire Wellinger

"INI Blimp"

INI Digital Collage by Maryclaire Wellinger

"Skywriting: First Lady of the Skies"

an INI Digital Collage by Maryclaire Wellinger

"INI Kewpie Doll Sunset"

an INI Digital Collage by Maryclaire Wellinger

INI KEWPIE DOLL SUNSET

an INI Digital collage by Maryclaire Wellinger

The second manifesto, called Apollinaria Signa was created in the town of S. Apollinare, and alludes purposely to Guillaume Apollinaire, whose L'esprit nouveau et les poètes holds great importance for the inisti. Among the declarations in the second manifesto are calls for emancipation of the poet and the reader, and it lists the following among its formal advances:

Poetry is also scent and gesture

A sonnet can be hypergraphic and rhyme with a drawing...

A poet can use at his whim the pen or the brush, computer or mallet, tape or film...

Every word, even the oldest, will be heard for the first time.3

Poetry is not necessarily a written page

Poetry can also be seen or heard

"Shipwrecked on INI"

an INI Digital Collage by Maryclaire Wellinger

SHIPWRECKED ON INI

INI DIGITAL COLLAGE BY MARYCLAIRE WELLINGER