Reading with Dino Pešut and Jonas Dumke and Luc Schneider followed by a discussion with Eva Birkenstock (Director, Ludwig Forum Aachen) and Hermann Müller (Freelance Curator for Literature, Berlin)
I receive the news of my father’s grave illness with almost complete indifference. I’m finding it mildly annoying, like road construction… He called me just briefly; he doesn’t want to bother me too much. “I’m at work right now.” I hang up. I’m furious at my father’s potentially terminal illness. I work at the reception desk of an okay hotel… My job is not demanding—often it’s boring, but it keeps my curiosity alive. I especially like working the evening shifts and figuring out who is sleeping with whom. At night, I get to read a lot. Secretly, I write poetry.
Thus begins Daddy Issues (originally published in 2020), Dino Pešut’s novel about the generation born in 1990s Croatia. A story about familial dysfunction which tackles head-on the challenges of friendship, independence, sex and sexuality, mortality, and class. In addition to selected excerpts from Daddy Issues, a monologue from Pešut’s theater play Bombing (originally published in 2021) will be read. Bombing is about two men who meet in an air raid shelter in bombed-out Belgrade and meet again 20 years later in a Berlin club. With special thanks to Theater Aachen.
Admission: 10 Euro / 7 Euro (incl. VAT, plus pre-sale charge)
Box office in the museum and via Reservix (https://www.reservix.de/)
Dino Pešut was born in Sisak, Croatia in 1990. He graduated from the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Zagreb and works as a writer and dramaturge. As a dramaturge, he collaborated with the directors Selma Spahić, Franka Perković, Nina Rajić Kranjac and Jernej Lorenci. As a playwright, he was invited to the Stueckemarkt program at the Theatertreffen Festival in Berlin (2016) and was a resident at the program for young playwrights at the Royal Court Theater in London (2019). He has received six Marin Držić Awards given by the Croatian Ministry of Culture for best dramatic texts. In 2018, he also received the Deutscher Jugentheaterpreis award for his play Penultimate Panda or Static. His plays have been translated into English, German, French, and Polish and have been staged in theaters across Croatia and abroad. He has written two novels, Poderana koljena (Scraped knees) and Tatin sin (Daddy Issues), both published by Fraktura. Editions of Tatin sin have been translated into English, Slovene, German, Spanish and Italian.
In addition to the museum’s numerous activities in the fields of performance, dance, music and film, the FORUM LITERATUR introduces an explicitly literary constant to the program of the Ludwig Forum Aachen. From now on, international authors are invited in regular intervals to share their work with a broad public in the context of readings, performances, workshops, and conversations. The first edition of the FORUM LITERATUR takes place at the Ludwig Forum Aachen from January to December 2024. It was conceived in close dialogue between Eva Birkenstock (Director, Ludwig Forum Aachen) and Hermann Müller (Literary Curator, Berlin) and is generously supported by the Kunststiftung NRW. For the cooperation with the actors Jonas Dumke and Luc Schneider we would like to thank the Theater Aachen.
Further events:
Thursday, June 6, 2024, 7pm
FORUM LITERATUR: Karl May
Reading with Enis Maci and Mazlum Vergiz
In 2024, the Aachen-based Backhaus book store will set up book tables for the events as part of a cooperation with FORUM LITERATUR.
