La Récitation de L'oubli, Ergo Pers 2009, with
a front cover etching by Hanns Schimansky

 



"A writer of rare quality," wrote Henri Michaux about Franck André Jamme. Since 1981, Jamme has published fifrteen volumes of poetry and fragments, including La Recitation de L'oubli, De la Multiplication des brèches et des obstacles, and Encore une attaque silencienne. In addition, he has published numerous limited editions, illustrated by artists such as Suzan Frecon, Zao-Wou-ki, James Brown and Jan Voss, among others.
Franck André Jamme lives and works in Paris and Burgundy, France but his poetry enjoys international circulation and the admiration of fellow poets. Indeed, one of those admirers is the award winning American poet John Ashberry, who recently translated Jamme's The Recitation of Forgetting.
In 1983, René Char asked him to direct the publication of his complete works for the Bibliothèque de la Pléiade.

As an independent curator, he has focused on contemporary Indian art. I remember Field of Color: Tantra Drawings from India , and Korwa Drawings , the first New York exhibition of drawings by the Hill Korwa, a tribe in Central India, featuring works that explore the boundaries between drawing and writing.
Franck André Jamme ranks among the best contemporary French poets. Translations of his poetry are included in 'The New French Poetry (Bloodaxe, 1996), and in 'The Yale Book of 20th Century French Poetry (2003)
 

 

In 2009-2010 Ergo Pers published a double volume artists' book with John Ashbery, Franck André Jamme and etchings by Hanns Schimansky.
The edition consists of two books:
John Ashbery, The Recital, translated by Franck André Jamme and La Recitation de l’oubli | Les gués, les passes, by Franck André Jamme and translated by John Ashbery.
For both books Hanns Schimansky created a series of five etchings.
John Ashbery has achieved a unique status among American poets. Even though much of his work is difficult to read, avant-garde, and post-modernist in character, Ashbery has become revered and beloved by many readers. Three Poems consists of three lengthy and highly intense prose poems called The New Spirit, Theme and The Recital. The three long prose poems ravel and unravel philosophical questions about language's ability to represent the world and about how best to apprehend reality – but these dense matters are leavened with Ashbery's characteristic wit. The third and shortest of the Three Poems, The Recital,' written in April 1971, is now translated into French by Franck André Jamme, and published in a bilingual limited edition by Ergo Pers.

         
 
   
         

John Ashbery, The Recital, translated by Franck André Jamme is published in an edition of 40 copies in December 2009. For this limited edition, Hanns Schimansky created a series of five etchings.

Colophon
The Recital /Le Récital, a prose poem by John Ashbery, bilingual edition in a French translation by Franck André Jamme, in close collaboration with the author and MarieFrance Azar, published in October, 2009, by Ergo Pers, Ghent. Each copy includes five original etchings by Hanns Schimansky and is further accompanied by a suite of five loose prints of the same etchings, signed and numbered by the artist. All forty copies are signed on the colophon page by the author, the artist and the translator.
The Recital /Le Récital is printed in a limited edition of forty copies, numbered in Arabic numerals, with an additional series of twelve reserved copies for the author, the artist and the translator, numbered I-XII. A separate edition of six copies, reserved for participating collaborators and numbered A-F, consists of six original etchings, instead of five. The etchings were printed in Berlin by Fritze Margull. The text is set in Garamond and printed on 230-gramme Hahnemühle paper. Typography, design and printing are by Rein Ergo.

Price: € 1.200.
 
Franck André Jamme, La Récitation de L'oubli, translated by John Ashbery, is published in an edition of 40 copies in December 2009. For this limited edition, Hanns Schimansky created a series of five etchings.
 
         
     
         

Colophon
La Récitation de l’oubli / Les gués, les passes / The Recitation of Forgetting / Fords, channels, poems by Franck André Jamme, bilingual edition in an English translation by John Ashbery, published in October, 2009, by Ergo Press, Ghent. Each copy includes five original etchings by Hanns Schimansky, is signed on the colophon page by the author, the artist and the translator, and is further accompanied by a suite of five loose prints of the same etchings, signed and numbered by the artist.
Les gués, les passes / Fords, channels, is printed in a limited edition of forty copies, numbered in Arabic numerals, with an additional series of twelve reserved copies for the author, the artist and the translator, numbered I-XII. A separate edition of six copies, reserved for participating collaborators and numbered A-F, consists of six original etchings, instead of five. The etchings were printed in Berlin by Fritze Margull. The text is set in Garamond and printed on 230-gramme Hahnemühle paper.Typography, design and printing are by Rein Ergo.

Price: € 1.200.

 

Franck André Jamme, editions with illustrations by James Brown

  


Since 1981, Franck André Jamme has published volumes of poetry and fragments. In addition, he has published numerous limited editions illustrated by artists such as Suzan Frecon, Zao-Wou-ki, James Brown, Acharya Vyakul, Marc Courturier, Yang Jiechang, Monique Frydman, and Jan Voss, among others.


Selected Bibliography

Franck André Jamme, Mantra des anxiétés et des cinq nuisances, bilingual edition English-French, Le Préau des Collines, 2008
Frank André Jamme, Another Silent Attack, Black Square Editions, NYC. 2006. Translated from the French by Michael Tweed.
Frank André Jamme, Mantra Box, Ragage Editions, Paris 2006
Frank André Jamme and Virgile Novarina, Good luck for the rest of the night again, Préau des collines, 2004.
Extraits de la vie des scarabées, Melville, 2004
La Récitation de l'oubli, Flammarion, 2004
Prière pour aller au Paradis avec les ânes suivi de J’aime l’âne, Gallimard jeunesse, 2002
Nouveaux exercices, Virgile Ulysse fin de siècle, 2002
Autres extraits de la vie des scarabées, avec Vyakul, Festina lente, 2002
Nouveaux extraits de la vie des scarabées, avec Parant, Festina lente, 2001
L’Avantage de la parole, Unes, 1999 [drawings Marc Couturier].
Encore une attaque silencieuse, Unes, 1999.
Un diamant sans étonnement, avec des dessins de James Brown, Unes, 1998
Franck André Jamme - Jean Zuber, Currente calamo, Fata Morgana, 1993.
(Franck André Jamme, translator), Lokenath Bhattacharya, Dieu à quatre têtes, Fata Morgana, 1993.
De la multiplication des brèches et des obstacles, Fata Morgana, 1993.
Frank André jamme - Nicolas Alquin, Sans noms, Fata Morgana, 1992
Franck André Jamme / Valérie-Catherine Richez, Descente ou montée ou les deux, Fata Morgana, 1992.
(Franck André Jamme, translator), Lokenath Bhattacharya, La danse, Fata Morgana, 1991.
(Franck André Jamme, translator),Lokenath Bhattacharya, Débris reconstruits, Fata Morgana, 1991.
Bois de lune, Fata Morgana, 1990.
Franck André Jamme / Richard Texier, Les chambres de l’œil, Fata Morgana, 1989.
(Franck André Jamme, translator), Lokenath Bhattacharya, Les marches du vide, Fata Morgana, 1987.
Pour les simples, Fata Morgana, 1987.
La récitation de l’oubli, Fata Morgana, 1986.
Absence de résidence et pratique du songe, Granit, 1985.
L’Ombre des biens à venir, Thierry Bouchard, 1981.
L'Entretien de la pierre, André Mallessard, 1980.

James Brown [show in Paris, Galerie Lelong 1999], text by Frank André Jamme, Répères, Cahiers d'art contemporain 102, Paris, Galerie Lelong, 1999.

     

 


Centre international de poésie Marseille | Auteurs : Franck André Jamme
Conches, banners, holy leaves, translated by Olivier Brossard and Lisa Lubasch | Jacket 14 - July 2001

Extracts from the life of a Beetle, translated from the French by Michael Tweed

 



On the left: Anonymous: tantric painting; Sanganer, 1989, unspecified paint on found paper.
Courtesy of Franck André Jamme, Paris, France and Feature Inc., New York.

     
     
   

 

 
         John Ashbery appearing on Belgische Radio en Televisie, Brussels