The Poetry Museum includes a conceptual exhibition dedicated to the idea of poetry. Set up in an original artistic language, the permanent exhibit belonging to the visual artist Ion Barbu relies on one of the fundamental features of postmodernism – the playful spirit. In addition to the original works, called “picto-poems”, displayed on the walls, the museum includes a number of large-scale artistic installations: • The Poetsʼ Footsteps (in all rooms) – a work composed of pairs of shoes actually belonging to contemporary Romanian poets, displayed alongside the fictional footwear of classical poets or literary figures, creating together a circuit of “...poetic steps” for the visitor. • Bottles for the Mind, Heart and Literature (the room on the right) – a piece of work created from a variety of bottles “filled with poetry”, each containing a poem written by hand and signed by a contemporary Romanian poet. • Letters to the Good Lord (the room in the middle) – the work includes ten personalized typewriters, each dedicated to a Romanian poet. • Haute couture / Haute culture (the room on the left) – the piece is a poetic “fashion show”, consisting of plastic mannequins dressed in “poetry”, that is in various costumes on which verses are painted. • Stones for my Temple (the room on the left) – the ensemble displays a number of stones of various shapes and colours, each being painted and representing a symbol and a word; their juxtaposition forms verses from contemporary poems. With these works, but also with the other works or installations present in the permanent exhibit, the artist Ion Barbu chose a unique, lively and spectacular way of drawing attention to Romanian poetry. He uses a modern language that, through the means specific to visual arts, constitutes in itself a poetic work whose images create words and whose words are transformed into images.
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