Draft:Gerardo Montoya

Born in Monterrey, he moved to Buenos Aires in 2005. His poetic work and management are characterized by an exploration of new digital languages and their impact on society. He has stated that his interest lies in "oiling the interactions between screens to sustain the fantasy of the Market," inquiring into the relationship between economy, desire, and technology.^[3]

• #PoesíaEnTuSofáArgentina (2020): He founded and coordinated this digital poetry festival during the COVID-19 pandemic, bringing together more than 150 poets from Argentina and Ibero-America in live streams. The cycle was highlighted by media outlets such as Radio Nacional and the newspaper Primera Edición for its impact on the digital cultural scene.^[4][2]
• El Gym Pop-up poético: A cycle of performative readings he founded at the Centro Cultural Morán, describing it as a "space for poetic training."^[3]
• Co-organization of the First International Hyperpoetry Cycle: Held at the Centro Cultural San Martín, together with poet José Ansaldo.
• UxU_müll Collective: He is a member of this digital art collective.^[1]

• #PoesíaEnTuSofáArgentina (2020): He founded and coordinated this digital poetry festival during the COVID-19 pandemic, bringing together more than 150 poets from Argentina and Ibero-America in live streams. The cycle was highlighted by media outlets such as Radio Nacional and the newspaper Primera Edición for its impact on the digital cultural scene.^[5][6]
• El Gym Pop-up poético: A cycle of performative readings he founded at the Centro Cultural Morán, describing it as a "space for poetic training."^[7]
• Co-organization of the First International Hyperpoetry Cycle: Held at the Centro Cultural San Martín, together with poet José Ansaldo.
• UxU_müll Collective: He is a member of this digital art collective.^[8]
• Qeja Ediciones: He was part of the founding team of the independent publishing house Qeja Ediciones, where he published his second poetry collection Decálogo para la clase media... in 2018. The publishing house describes his participation as a constitutive part of its identity ("qeja is gerardo montoya").^[9]
• Feria del Libre: He is one of the organizers of this independent publishers' fair, held at the Centro Cultural Morán with the aim of "promoting reading and writing," as well as generating a space for reflection on the relationship between the world of books, the market, and politics.^[10] The inaugural edition in 2018 featured the participation of 29 independent publishers and prominent figures from the Argentine literary and cultural scene, including Luisa Valenzuela, María Lobo, Leticia Martin, Gonzalo Heredia, Luciano Lutereau, Bob Chow, Débora Mundani, Juan Terranova and Luciano Sáliche, among others.^[10][11]

First Vice President of PEN Argentina. He holds this position on the board of directors of the Argentine branch of PEN International. Previously, he coordinated the Young Writers Committee and the Communication Committee of the same organization.^[12]

• PEN International Search Committee (2023): He was appointed as a member of the global committee to identify candidates for the board of directors of PEN International.

Montoya's poetry has received attention in Argentine cultural media, which highlight its experimental nature and its connection to digital language.

Upon the publication of his second book, the newspaper Infobae included Montoya in a selection of five poets to "take the pulse of contemporary poetry." The review, written by Luciano Sáliche, describes Decálogo para la clase media... as a work that initially generates bewilderment in the reader—"one doesn't know very well whether what they are reading is a great genius or concrete garbage"—to then become an experience of "enjoyment." The review highlights the book's aesthetic as a reflection of the author's work in the digital environment, noting the use of "lowercase and uppercase words, symbols, codes, emojis, excessive punctuation, enormous spaces," which together produce the sensation of having been written by an "irreverent algorithm," albeit sprinkled with "notable stains of humanity." The article underscores two central reasons to read Montoya: firstly, "because he proposes something new," and secondly, "because he constructs his poetry as a deformed mirror that returns all our daily life stirred with overwhelming irony."^[13]

In an extensive interview for the digital magazine Polvo, published in April 2019, the same critic deepens the analysis of both poetry books. He defines #TeAmoGrupoClarín (2016) as Montoya's "political book," pointing out that it is "plagued with political commentary, some very conjunctural," alluding to the context of the electoral victory of Mauricio Macri in 2015 and nostalgia for Kirchnerism. In contrast, he characterizes Decálogo para la clase media... (2018) as "the aesthetic book," a "much more finished" work where "the universe it proposes stands broader and more diverse," with poems "longer, more unpredictable, more intense."^[14]

The critic describes the aesthetic shared by both books through the appearance of "lowercase and uppercase words, symbols, codes, emojis, excessive punctuation, enormous spaces," generating "the sensation that everything was written by an irreverent algorithm." In his analysis, Sáliche recovers the label of "avant-garde poet" to refer to Montoya, arguing that his work proposes "something disruptive and new" in a cultural context where "the copy of the copy of the copy" predominates. The interview concludes with a reflection similar to that of Infobae: reading Montoya allows one to confront a "daily life stirred with overwhelming irony," offering an experience that, while not aspiring to poetic salvation, at least "fosters something new, something that unsettles."^[14]