Ion Barbu is an atypical artist, restless and terribly effervescent. When you think you figured him out, he comes up with a new project that forces you to redefine him.

We all know his exploit from Petrila, a town he reinvented by spreading verses by Romanian poets on its walls and dilapidated buildings. The miracle lasted only a few days as the authorities quickly came with the brush to restore the sweet order of mediocrity.

But Ion Barbu believes like no one else in the subtle force of poetry to transform the world. This explains the marvellous Museum of Poetry that he made in Iași, the most suitable city to host such an endeavour.

In this project, Ion Barbu proposes a series of small petro-poetic installations. The crosswords, the puzzle, the grid, the stamps, the logos or the map are just some of the pretexts on which a verse can be woven. Poetry is all around us.

As you can see, being born in Petrila (the town’s name can be translated as stony, unpaved road), Ion Barbu has a special relationship with stones. From an early age, since stones were pebble, he has been teaching them to say poems, as he does right now. Let’s listen to them with our eyes and rejoice with our spines!