GREETINGS FROM THE IMC 2011

Text: Andrei Dorian Gheorghe
Photos: Victor Chifelea



Hello from Sibiu, Romania,
one of the most idyllic places in Europe
and the host of the 30th edition of the annual
International Meteor Conference,
including scientific lectures (almost all the time),
a few social events
and the 15th Astropoetry Show.

The IMC’s annual Astropoetry Show had two printed “prologues”
given by SARM representatives to all IMC participants:
-in 1995 (at Brandenburg, Germany), a folder with poems and proverbs about meteors
by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe;
-in 1996 (at Apeldoorn, Holland), a few Romanian astropoetry folders
and Andrei Dorian Gheorghe’s astropoetic dramas.

The first six Astropoetry Shows (live performances in 1997-2002),
from which the first three were 100% Romanian,
were completed by SARM’s international (printed) astropoetry anthologies
(and given to all IMC participants)
and by SARM’s national astro-photo-art-poetry posters.
Three of the cultural records of those times, unsurpassable
at other world astronomical conferences, were
-SARM’s anthology Romanian Contemporary Astropoetry 2000 and Guests,
with 121 authors (61 Romanians and 60 from other countries),
exhibited in 2000 at Pucioasa, Romania;
-a team of 13 astropoets from only one country (Romania),
who recited their own astropoems during the Astropoetry Show 2000
at Pucioasa, Romania;
-the entire collection of SARM’s international printed anthologies
of contemporary astropoetry 1996-2002, exhibited and also becoming the subject
of an act played during the Astropoetry Show 2002
at Frombork (the native city of Nicolaus Copernicus), Poland.

After that SARM’s annual international astropoetry anthologies
(supplements of SARM’s magazine “Noi si Cerul - Us and the Sky” till 2002)
continued until 2008, being transformed into the
Meteor Contemporary Poetry Project anthologies,
which were published in the electronic archive
of the International Meteor Organization,
so the next six Astropoetry Shows were completed just by
SARM’s annual national astro-photo-poetry poster.
But the Astropoetry Shows (live programs) grew considerably
(especially in Oostmalle, Belgium in 2005, Roden, Holland in 2006,
Bareges, France in 2007 and Sachticka, Slovakia in 2008),
with participants (astropoets, astroactors, astroartists) from a total of 17 countries
in the first 12 editions.

Due to unforeseen circumstances, the 13th Astropoetry Show
was not performed before a live audience,
but consisted of a special web page, with a
reproduction of the first international astro-photo-poetry poster
made by SARM
and astropoetic texts composed by participants
at the IMC 2009 in Porec, Croatia.

Consequently, from now on the Astropoetry Show concept will include both
an astropoetry poster and a live astropoetry spectacle.

With contributors (astropoets, astroactors, astroartists)
from 23 countries and five continents,
the 14th IMC Astropoetry Show (September 2010, Armagh, Northern Ireland)
will remain for a while the largest-ever international astropoetry show
(with posters and live performances)
held by an astronomical observatory.

With contributors (astropoets, astroactors, astroartists)
from 24 countries (Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Sri Lanka, USA, Canada,
Venezuela, Ireland, UK, Belgium, Holland, Germany, France, Spain,
Switzerland, Russia, Turkey, Greece, Poland, Slovakia, Italy, Belarus,
Moldavia and Romania) and from five continents,
the 15th IMC Astropoetry Show (September 2011, Sibiu, Romania)
will be the largest-ever international show of original astropoetry
(with posters and live performances)
presented for the first time in English
at a world astronomical conference.
Only two astropoetry posters will include
108 astropoems by 95 authors
(between 9 and 84 years of age).
And actually, since two of the acts in the astropoetry spectacle
will involve the participation of the whole audience,
we can add six other countries
(Czechia, Ukraine, Hungary, Croatia, Bulgaria, Slovenia)
to this list,
for a total of 30 countries.

Although statistical drunkenness was not a target,
we hope this is a case in which quality attracts quantity.

You can see more of these things regarding the 15th Astropoetry Show
even if
dressed in a shirt with many beer stains
I seem like a drunken man,
and we will begin this incredible story
right from Sibiu’s Bridge of Liars.










HOME       NEXT