CULTURE · ART IN PUBLIC SPACE · 2016
Julius Meinl: Pay With a Poem
A tree with leaves of poetry.
Poet-Tree: A Thousand Voices brought poems written by people in the cafés taking part in the Julius Meinl Pay With a Poem campaign to the centre of London. A red tree, with verses instead of leaves, invited passers-by to stop, read and leave something of their own.
The installation was produced in Bucharest through Colorbitor and exhibited in Finsbury Avenue Square in April 2016. It is part of the Susțin founders' experience of turning cultural ideas into projects the public can take part in.
THE INSTALLATION
A poem could pay for a coffee.
On World Poetry Day, 21 March, Julius Meinl invited people to pay for a coffee or a tea with handwritten verses. The gesture started in a familiar place, the café, and asked people to try something they may not have done in a long time: to write.
The poems became leaves.
Some of the texts gathered in the campaign ended up on the branches of the installation in London. Hundreds of sheets, each with someone's voice, formed the crown of a tree in a square surrounded by office buildings.
The public could continue the work.
Passers-by could take a poem or add verses of their own. That turned the installation into a place of exchange: you read what a stranger had written and could leave a few words in return.
POETRY IN LIGHT
A poem in light, next to the tree
Poet and artist Robert Montgomery, an ambassador of the campaign, took part in the London activation. The work also included a poem of his made of illuminated letters, visible next to the tree.
THE TEAM'S CONTRIBUTION
From the render to the tree in the square
Through Colorbitor, the Susțin founders contributed to the production of the installation. The portfolio images document the passage from the three-dimensional representation to the built structure and then to the tree's presence in London's public space.
For us, the project shows how much the form of the invitation matters when you ask people to come closer to culture. Here the way in was simple: a sheet with a few verses, which you could read or write on your way through the city.
Project milestones
April 2016 · Finsbury Avenue Square, London
Produced in Bucharest · participatory installation in public space
Hundreds of poems exhibited, collected through the Pay With a Poem campaign
Who was involved
Julius Meinl
The brand and the Pay With a Poem campaign.
Robert Montgomery
Artist and poet associated with the installation, ambassador of the campaign and author of the poem in light.
Colorbitor
Production of the installation.
The participants
The authors of the poems that became part of the work.
Do you have an idea that deserves to reach the city?
Together we can build an installation, a cultural intervention or a project in which people have something to say. Tell us about the place, the audience and the idea you want to start from.
Let's build a projectThe project in the original sources:the Colorbitor portfolio ↗
HOW THIS LINKS TO OUR IMPACT AREAS
The installation brought people's poems into public space and invited them to take part in a shared work, in a collaboration between brand, artist and production team.