Christophe Tarkos

Christophe Tarkos (1963–2004) was born near Marseille and trained as a social science teacher before devoting himself to poetry in the early 1990s. His work placed the spoken word at the centre of poetry and he became well-known through his many powerful (semi-)improvised poetic performances, which would often be extensively re-worked in written form. In the mid-to-late 1990s his output became frenetic (he was often publishing 4-6 books a year). He also made the satirical journal R.R. with Nathalie Quintane and Stéphane Bérard, and later collaborated with Charles Pennequin on Facial and with Philippe Beck on Quaderno. Tarkos died from a brain tumour after a long period of excruciating mental and physical illness. His writing and performances interrogate the act of speaking and writing themselves, using straightforward language that develops into various monstrosities through the sheer force of its repetitive accumulation and modulation.