Flurina Badel (RO), Yari Bernasconi (IT), Katja Brunner (DE), Kim de l’Horizon (DE), Dorothée Elmiger (DE), Michael Fehr (DE), Heike Fiedler (DE), Thomas Flahaut (FR), Baptiste Gaillard (FR), Rebecca Gisler (DE/FR), Asa Hendry (RO), Thomas Hirschhorn (DE), Annette Hug (DE), Carmen Jaquier (FR), Kayije Kagame (FR), KT Gorique (FR), Simone Lappert (DE), Max Lobe (FR), Julien Maret (FR), Marko Miladinović (IT), Fatima Moumouni (DE), Bruno Pellegrino (FR), Pierrine Poget (FR), Ugo Rondinone (DE), Davide-Christelle Sanvee (FR), Elisa Shua Dusapin (FR), Marina Skalova (FR/DE), Michelle Steinbeck (DE), Henr-Michel Yéré (FR), Ivna Žic (DE)

In 1968, American poet John Giorno (1936–2019) launched Dial-A-Poem, a project that brought poetry into everyday life by distributing it over the phone and presenting it in performed rather than written form. Nearly 60 years on, MAMCO, in collaboration with Giorno Poetry Systems (GPS), is reviving this original model with Dial-A-Poem Switzerland, bringing together voices from Switzerland’s diverse language communities. The contributing poets, writers, thinkers, lyricists and figures from the worlds of theater and film all have one thing in common: each has shaped their artistic expression through the medium of the word, its meaning and its sound.

This outdoor project takes place at the Bains des Pâquis, where a telephone is installed in an old phone booth. Meanwhile, the jetty is the site of an exhibition exploring the literary and artistic movements associated with the life and works of John Giorno—the Beat Generation, visual poetry, the underground scene, and Pop Art—as well as the New York scene’s early experimentation with technology. One of the most popular spots in Geneva will thus become the stage for literary production past and present. And there will be free poems on offer for anyone who picks up the phone or calls the Dial-A-Poem Switzerland number.

• The contributors were selected by Elisabeth Jobin. The exhibition at the Bains des Pâquis is curated by Elisabeth Jobin and Charlotte Morel, in collaboration with the Bains des Pâquis exhibitions team.