FORUM LITERATUR: Der Übergriff.
Reading with Ursula Krechel
Welcome, moderation: Eva Birkenstock and Hermann Müller
Thursday, February 1, 2024, 7 pm, Space
Admission: 10 Euro / 7 Euro (incl. VAT, plus pre-sale charge)
Box office in the museum and presale via Reservix↑
In German
Ursula Krechel will read from her story Der Übergriff [“The Assault”], written in 2001 and reissued by the publisher Verlag Jung und Jung in 2022. The reading will be combined with the radio drama Meine Stimme ist mit den Fischen geschwommen [“My voice swam with the fish”], produced by SWR in 2004, which was developed based on motifs in Ursula Krechel’s story. The actress Angela Winkler will play the protagonist.
“A woman starts speaking. Her lips are quite dry and cracked—that’s how often she’s been cut off. But how does she get away from this intimidation? By opening her mouth only to eat, kiss and marvel? Then again: isn’t it precisely silence that gives the voice the space that shuts it up? People have kept silent too often—including back then, when the entire house heard how the girls next door were beaten. Have we unlearned our own language because everyone has forgotten how to listen? Like a reporter who no longer listens when he reports on the war—he has any distress that tightly under control.”
Ursula Krechel, born in Trier in 1947, studied German philology, theatre studies, and art history. Teaching positions at various universities. First publications of poetry in 1977; followed by poetry collections, prose, radio dramas and essays. Ursula Krechel received the “Joseph Breitbach Preis” in 2009; in 2012, she was awarded the German Book Prize for her novel Landgericht [State Justice]. Ursula Krechel is a member of the German Academy for Language and Literature, the Academy of Arts, Berlin and the Academy of Sciences and Literature, Mainz. She lives in Berlin. Her most recent publications include Beileibe und zumute, poems, 2021; Gehen. Träumen. Sehen. Unter Bäumen, essays, 2022; and the reissue of the story Der Übergriff, 2022.
The evening is part of a new series of events at the Ludwig Forum: the FORUM LITERATUR. 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. International authors are invited in regular intervals to share their work with a broad public in the context of readings, performances, workshops, and conversations. Following Ursula Krechel on April 25, 2024 Dino Pešut will read from his internationally acclaimed debut novel DADDY ISSUES and a reading from Karl May with Enis Maci and Mazlum Nergiy follows on June 6, 2024. Further events will be announced in due course. The 2024 edition of FORUM LITERATUR was conceived in close dialogue between Eva Birkenstock (Director, Ludwig Forum Aachen) and Hermann Müller (Literary Curator, Berlin) and has been generously supported by the Kunststiftung NRW. Subsequent dates in the newly established series FORUM LITERATUR are: FORUM LITERATUR: Daddy Issues with Dino Pešut (25.4., 7 pm, reading in German, conversation in English); FORUM LITERATUR: Karl May with Enis Maci & Mazlum Nergiz (6.6., 7 pm, in German). Further dates will be announced in due course.
