Festival de Fort Boyard poster, 1967

Exhibition poster designed by Gianni Bertini and Brion Gysin in Paris, announcing a festival that never took place. Screenprint in red on brown stock, 68 x 53 cm. With pinholes in top and bottom margin, light toning, generally in very good condition. Provenance: collection Guy Schraenen. Extremely rare item.

The poster promotes a fictitious experimental poetry festival set at an disused Napoleonic fortress off the Atlantic coast. Supposedly organized by Henri Chopin, Serge Béguier, Antonio Berni, Gianni Bertini and Julien Blaine, with contributions and performances by Brion Gysin, Dom Sylvester Houédard, Gil Wolman, Furnival et al. Seven different posters were designed by Bertini and Gysin and plastered across the streets of Paris. This copy promotes a bloated version of one of Gysin's dream machines, three meters in diameter, hosting 18 visitors. The posters were also published in a catalogue, complete with programme information and exhibition list.