Reading with Marlene Streeruwitz and the actress Melanie Kretschmann
Welcome and conversation with Eva Birkenstock and Hermann Müller (in German)
Thursday, January 25, 7pm, Mulde
“The reading from Die Schmerzmacherin. is intended to verify that literature is the medium that can encompass the complexity of our lives in the world. By reading, readers can gather experiences which they need not experience themselves, and can hold these select experiences up against their own. The reading of the second dialogue between the mother and daughter [from Tage im Mai.], in turn, will show how difficult it is to speak about love, and how we disclose our feelings to each other more by leaving things out. This dialogue also shows, however, how loving can succeed, but how we are urged to pay less heed to these forms of loving.” (Marlene Streeruwitz)
Box office in the museum
The reading is part of a new series of events at the Ludwig Forum Aachen, the Forum Literatur. Authors are from now invited to the Ludwig Forum Aachen at regular intervals for readings and discussions. The first edition of the series was conceived jointly by Eva Birkenstock and the Berlin-based literary curator Hermann Müller. Subsequent dates in the newly established series Forum Literatur are: Forum Literatur: Der Übergriff with Ursula Krechel (1.2., 7 pm, in German); 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.
Marlene Streeruwitz, born in Baden near Vienna, studied Slavic studies and art history and started out as a director and author of plays and radio plays. She has received numerous awards for her novels, including most recently the Bremer Literaturpreis and the Preis der Literaturhäuser. Her novel Die Schmerzmacherin. was shortlisted for the Deutscher Buchpreis 2011. Most recently, she published the novel Flammenwand.(longlisted for the Deutscher Buchpreis 2019), the Breitbach-Poetikvorlesung Geschlecht. Zahl. Fall. (2021) and the novel Tage im Mai. (2023).
Melanie Kretschmann, born in Hamburg, was trained in classical and contemporary dance in Hamburg and Brussels. She studied acting at the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Academy of Music and Theater in Leipzig. Kretschmann is an actress and director, lives a car-free and vegetarian lifestyle, rides a singlespeed bike and fights for a sustainable world. In 2012, she had the idea of creating an urban garden in front of SchauspielKöln. She plans, maintains and develops the long-term artistic project CARLsGARTEN with conviction and energy. She is the mother of four children.
