On 10 and 11 March 2025, CLIC members Ann Peeters, Michael Rosenfeld, Rachele Gusella collaborated with Patrick McGuinness (University of Oxford) for the international conference "'I love you …to fragments': Love and desire expressed in graffiti, street poetry and short poetic fragments outside of the book" at Maison française d’Oxford.
The conference featured six panels:
- Love and Desire in Unexpected Places
- Queer Poetic Desire
- The Poetics of Resistance
- Different Kinds of Love and Poetry
- New Technologies of Love and Fragmentations
- Where the Streets Have No Name
Several CLIC members presented on a wide range of topics. On the first day, David Gullentops analyzed the alternative iconography of love in Jean Cocteau’s mural at Menton (La salle des mariages de Menton), while Michael Rosenfeld examined queer latrinalia in Italy and France from 1890 to 1910 (“Vive les flics homosexuels”). Arvi Sepp explored prison writing during the Holocaust and its material significance. The day ended with a moving slam poetry performance by Célia Ballini, followed by a candlelit dinner at St Anne’s College.
On the second day, Chiara Zampieri examined AI-generated poetry in Numero Cromatico’s Eternal Struggle of My Desire. Rachele Gusella, together with Ann Peeters, presented on love in contemporary European street poetry (“Love is in the air, everywhere I look around”).
Take a moment to view a selection of photos from this memorable and enriching conference:
