{"id":33,"date":"2023-11-28T11:39:14","date_gmt":"2023-11-28T11:39:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tomascohen.info\/home-copy\/"},"modified":"2024-03-08T02:29:09","modified_gmt":"2024-03-08T02:29:09","slug":"artisticdirection","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.tomascohen.info\/en\/artisticdirection\/","title":{"rendered":"Artistic Direction"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":5,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"class_list":["post-33","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"grid":"{\r\n \"colCount\": 12,\r\n \"colGutter\": 1,\r\n \"rowGutters\": [\r\n 3,\r\n 5,\r\n 0,\r\n 0,\r\n 2,\r\n 0,\r\n 0,\r\n 2,\r\n 0,\r\n 0,\r\n 2,\r\n 0,\r\n 0\r\n ],\r\n \"frameMargin\": 5,\r\n \"leftFrameMargin\": 5,\r\n \"rightFrameMargin\": 5,\r\n \"topFrameMargin\": 40,\r\n \"bottomFrameMargin\": 5,\r\n \"rowAttrs\": [\r\n {\r\n \"relid\": 2\r\n },\r\n {\r\n \"relid\": 4\r\n },\r\n {\r\n \"relid\": 11\r\n },\r\n {\r\n \"collapse\": true,\r\n \"relid\": 12\r\n },\r\n {\r\n \"collapse\": true,\r\n \"relid\": 8\r\n },\r\n {\r\n \"collapse\": false,\r\n \"relid\": 10\r\n },\r\n {\r\n \"collapse\": true,\r\n \"relid\": 27\r\n },\r\n {\r\n \"collapse\": true,\r\n \"relid\": 16\r\n },\r\n {\r\n \"relid\": 14\r\n },\r\n {\r\n \"collapse\": true,\r\n \"relid\": 29\r\n },\r\n {\r\n \"collapse\": true,\r\n \"relid\": 20\r\n },\r\n {\r\n \"relid\": 18\r\n },\r\n {\r\n \"collapse\": true,\r\n \"relid\": 31\r\n },\r\n {\r\n \"collapse\": true,\r\n \"relid\": 22\r\n }\r\n ],\r\n \"bgColor\": \"#f9f9f9\",\r\n \"bgImage\": null,\r\n \"cont\": [\r\n {\r\n \"type\": \"text\",\r\n \"cont\": \"

Poetry<\/a>, artistic direction,<\/span><\/a> painting and drawing<\/a>, translation<\/a>, publications<\/a>, press<\/a>, bio<\/a>.<\/span><\/h1>\",\r\n \"align\": \"top\",\r\n \"row\": 0,\r\n \"col\": 0,\r\n \"colspan\": 11,\r\n \"offsetx\": 0,\r\n \"offsety\": 0,\r\n \"spaceabove\": 0,\r\n \"spacebelow\": 0,\r\n \"yvel\": 1,\r\n \"push\": 0,\r\n \"relid\": 5,\r\n \"absolute_position\": false,\r\n \"stickytop\": \"111\"\r\n },\r\n {\r\n \"type\": \"stack\",\r\n \"cont\": [\r\n {\r\n \"type\": \"text\",\r\n \"cont\": \"

The fact that writing can develop a scenic dimension and that public poetry readings call for a particular kind of dramaturgy was conceivable to me from early on, probably because thanks to my father's acting career I grew up attending theatre rehearsals and premieres. In addition to participating as an author performing my poetry in international festivals, I have been working for long as artistic director of literary events in Chile and Germany.<\/span><\/p>\",\r\n \"align\": \"onethird\",\r\n \"row\": -1,\r\n \"col\": 0,\r\n \"colspan\": 10,\r\n \"offsetx\": 0,\r\n \"offsety\": 0,\r\n \"spaceabove\": 0,\r\n \"spacebelow\": 0,\r\n \"yvel\": 1,\r\n \"push\": 0,\r\n \"relid\": 7,\r\n \"absolute_position\": false\r\n }\r\n ],\r\n \"relid\": 1,\r\n \"colspan\": 12,\r\n \"col\": 0,\r\n \"push\": 0,\r\n \"row\": 1,\r\n \"offsetx\": 0,\r\n \"offsety\": 0,\r\n \"spaceabove\": 0,\r\n \"spacebelow\": 0,\r\n \"align\": \"bottom\",\r\n \"yvel\": 1,\r\n \"absolute_position\": false\r\n },\r\n {\r\n \"type\": \"text\",\r\n \"cont\": \"

La fertilidad de algunos muertos (2009)<\/h1>\",\r\n \"align\": \"top\",\r\n \"row\": 2,\r\n \"col\": 0,\r\n \"colspan\": 10,\r\n \"offsetx\": 0,\r\n \"offsety\": 0,\r\n \"spaceabove\": 0,\r\n \"spacebelow\": 0,\r\n \"yvel\": 1,\r\n \"push\": 0,\r\n \"relid\": 6,\r\n \"absolute_position\": false\r\n },\r\n {\r\n \"type\": \"text\",\r\n \"cont\": \"

+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\",\r\n \"align\": \"middle\",\r\n \"row\": 2,\r\n \"col\": 11,\r\n \"colspan\": 1,\r\n \"offsetx\": 0,\r\n \"offsety\": 0,\r\n \"spaceabove\": 0,\r\n \"spacebelow\": 0,\r\n \"yvel\": 1,\r\n \"push\": 1,\r\n \"relid\": 3,\r\n \"absolute_position\": false\r\n },\r\n {\r\n \"type\": \"text\",\r\n \"cont\": \"

A<\/span><\/p>\",\r\n \"align\": \"middle\",\r\n \"row\": 3,\r\n \"col\": 0,\r\n \"colspan\": 1,\r\n \"offsetx\": 0,\r\n \"offsety\": 0,\r\n \"spaceabove\": 0,\r\n \"spacebelow\": 0,\r\n \"yvel\": 1,\r\n \"push\": 0,\r\n \"relid\": 26,\r\n \"absolute_position\": false\r\n },\r\n {\r\n \"type\": \"text\",\r\n \"cont\": \"

In 2009, I conceived and directed a series of performative readings in Santiago, Chile, in a dynamic space called Estudio Elefante. In this series of events, which I titled La fertilidad de algunos muertos (\u201cThe fertility of some deceased\u201d), young poets paid homage to deceased poets. Each event focused on putting the work of new poets in dialogue with that of one or more deceased poets, regardless of language or country. The performative readings highlighted themes of literary influence and translation. The dramaturgy, which included live music, emphasised the multidisciplinary. Homage was paid to poets such as Paul Celan, William Blake, Allen Ginsberg and others. Chilean poets such as Javier Bello, Alejandra del R\u00edo, Carmen Garc\u00eda and others participated.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\",\r\n \"align\": \"top\",\r\n \"row\": 4,\r\n \"col\": 0,\r\n \"colspan\": 10,\r\n \"offsetx\": 0,\r\n \"offsety\": 0,\r\n \"spaceabove\": 0,\r\n \"spacebelow\": 0,\r\n \"yvel\": 1,\r\n \"push\": 0,\r\n \"relid\": 9,\r\n \"absolute_position\": false,\r\n \"frameOverflow\": \"\"\r\n },\r\n {\r\n \"type\": \"text\",\r\n \"cont\": \"

Hafenlesung (2015-2022)<\/h1>\",\r\n \"align\": \"middle\",\r\n \"row\": 5,\r\n \"col\": 0,\r\n \"colspan\": 10,\r\n \"offsetx\": 0,\r\n \"offsety\": 0,\r\n \"spaceabove\": 0,\r\n \"spacebelow\": 0,\r\n \"yvel\": 1,\r\n \"push\": 0,\r\n \"relid\": 13,\r\n \"absolute_position\": false,\r\n \"frameOverflow\": \"\"\r\n },\r\n {\r\n \"type\": \"text\",\r\n \"cont\": \"

+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\",\r\n \"align\": \"middle\",\r\n \"row\": 5,\r\n \"col\": 11,\r\n \"colspan\": 1,\r\n \"offsetx\": 0,\r\n \"offsety\": 0,\r\n \"spaceabove\": 0,\r\n \"spacebelow\": 0,\r\n \"yvel\": 1,\r\n \"push\": 1,\r\n \"relid\": 34,\r\n \"absolute_position\": false\r\n },\r\n {\r\n \"type\": \"text\",\r\n \"cont\": \"

A<\/span><\/p>\",\r\n \"align\": \"top\",\r\n \"row\": 6,\r\n \"col\": 0,\r\n \"colspan\": 1,\r\n \"offsetx\": 0,\r\n \"offsety\": 0,\r\n \"spaceabove\": 0,\r\n \"spacebelow\": 0,\r\n \"yvel\": 1,\r\n \"push\": 0,\r\n \"relid\": 28,\r\n \"absolute_position\": false\r\n },\r\n {\r\n \"type\": \"text\",\r\n \"cont\": \"

After several years of nomadism, in 2015 I co-founded in Hamburg, Germany, the international authors collective Found in Translation (consisting of Nefeli Kavouras, Hugh James, Jonis Hartmann, Annika D\u00f6rau and others). The collective's platform for literary activism was the Hafenlesung (\\\"Harbour Reading\\\"): a multilingual and also often multidisciplinary reading series that established a new, mostly young audience for international contemporary literature in Hamburg. The program promoted heterogeneity, presenting authors from a wide range of genres, identities and generations. With an emphasis on multilingualism, each event presented works in four to five different languages (when not in German, along with their translation). Our Found in Translation collective developed this reading series as a platform for representing and cultivating the cultural variety inherent to Hamburg, a port city that has for centuries been a place where many languages and cultures overlap. The Hafenlesung was thus a place of resonance for literature written in Germany in languages other than German, highlighting translation as an important cultural process and seeking to re-signify the concept of \\\"national literature\\\".\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

The Hafenlesung organised readings in collaboration with German independent publishers such as Verlagshaus Berlin, Kookbooks, Edition Nautilus and Salis Verlag. The Hafenlesung also organised events in collaboration with institutions such as the DAAD Artists-in-Residence Program in Berlin, the LATINALE festival, the Cervantes Institute Hamburg and the Burg-H\u00fclshoff Literature Center. We also premiered new German translations - commissioned especially for our events - of the work of foreign poets based in Germany whose poetry was not available in German until then (such as Rita Gonz\u00e1lez Hesaynes, Luis Varela and others). We also made a point of presenting, whenever possible, the translators reading on stage alongside the authors. In addition, delicious vegan catering was served free of charge as part of each event, creating a good atmosphere that brought audience and performers together.<\/span>
<\/span>
<\/span>Writers from more than 30 countries and 20 languages participated in the Hafenlesung reading series. Our venues were first the club and alternative cultural center Golem and later the Nachtasyl at the Thalia Theater in Hamburg. In 2017, our collective brought the concept of the Hafenlesung through a performative reading in the context of the international literature festival BuchBasel. In 2018, the Hafenlesung became part of Unabh\u00e4ngige Lesereihen, of which I was later elected board member. In 2019, the Hafenlesung took part of ULF - The Festival of the Independent reading series of Germany, Austria and Switzerland. During the years 2015-22, the Hafenlesung was supported by the Beh\u00f6rde f\u00fcr Kultur und Medien Hamburg, the Hamburgische Kulturstiftung, the Slowenisches Kulturzentrum Berlin, the Hamburg Writers' Room, the DAAD and Ms. Annegret Weitk\u00e4mper-Krug.<\/span>
<\/span>
<\/span>Links about the Hafenlesung:<\/span><\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

Found in Translation writers collective, Facebook page:<\/span>
<\/span>www.facebook.com\/foundintrans<\/span>
<\/span>
<\/span><\/a>On the website of Unabh\u00e4ngige Lesereihen: <\/span>
<\/span>https:\/\/www.lesereihen.org\/reihen-hafenlesung<\/span><\/a><\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

Hafen Lesung at the Burg-H\u00fclshoff Literature Center, M\u00fcnster:<\/span><\/p>

http:\/\/www.burg-huelshoff.de\/blog\/hafen-lesung<\/span><\/a><\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

Hafen Lesung in UNISCENE magazine, Germany:<\/span><\/p>

https:\/\/issuu.com\/uniscene\/docs\/uniscene_hamburg_4-2016<\/span><\/a><\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

St\u00e9phanie Divaret about Hafen Lesung in BuchBasel, in FixPoetry:<\/span><\/p>

https:\/\/www.fixpoetry.com\/feuilleton\/kolumnen\/2017\/hafenlesung-in-basel<\/span><\/a><\/p>\",\r\n \"align\": \"top\",\r\n \"row\": 7,\r\n \"col\": 0,\r\n \"colspan\": 10,\r\n \"offsetx\": 0,\r\n \"offsety\": 0,\r\n \"spaceabove\": 0,\r\n \"spacebelow\": 0,\r\n \"yvel\": 1,\r\n \"push\": 0,\r\n \"relid\": 17,\r\n \"absolute_position\": false,\r\n \"frameOverflow\": \"\"\r\n },\r\n {\r\n \"type\": \"text\",\r\n \"cont\": \"

Westopia - festival for a multilingual literature of the future (2021)<\/h1>\",\r\n \"align\": \"middle\",\r\n \"row\": 8,\r\n \"col\": 0,\r\n \"colspan\": 10,\r\n \"offsetx\": 0,\r\n \"offsety\": 0,\r\n \"spaceabove\": 0,\r\n \"spacebelow\": 0,\r\n \"yvel\": 1,\r\n \"push\": 0,\r\n \"relid\": 15,\r\n \"absolute_position\": false,\r\n \"frameOverflow\": \"\"\r\n },\r\n {\r\n \"type\": \"text\",\r\n \"cont\": \"

+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\",\r\n \"align\": \"middle\",\r\n \"row\": 8,\r\n \"col\": 11,\r\n \"colspan\": 1,\r\n \"offsetx\": 0,\r\n \"offsety\": 0,\r\n \"spaceabove\": 0,\r\n \"spacebelow\": 0,\r\n \"yvel\": 1,\r\n \"push\": 1,\r\n \"relid\": 35,\r\n \"absolute_position\": false\r\n },\r\n {\r\n \"type\": \"text\",\r\n \"cont\": \"

A<\/span><\/p>\",\r\n \"align\": \"middle\",\r\n \"row\": 9,\r\n \"col\": 0,\r\n \"colspan\": 1,\r\n \"offsetx\": 0,\r\n \"offsety\": 0,\r\n \"spaceabove\": 0,\r\n \"spacebelow\": 0,\r\n \"yvel\": 1,\r\n \"push\": 0,\r\n \"relid\": 30,\r\n \"absolute_position\": false\r\n },\r\n {\r\n \"type\": \"text\",\r\n \"cont\": \"

As a member of the international author collective Found in Translation, I co-organized in 2021 Westopia, Festival for a Multilingual Literature of the Future at the Literature Center, Burg H\u00fclshoff (M\u00fcnster). The festival was curated by our Author:innenkollektiv and J\u00f6rg Albrecht, artistic director of the Literature Center, Burg H\u00fclshoff.<\/span><\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

For five days in September 2021, the Westopia Festival organised readings, performances, workshops and debates. Sharing, discussing and creating, we sought to map an imaginary nation (a \u201cState of Mind\u201d) that would give resonance and relevance to the questions and repressions we face as foreign authors writing in Germany in languages other than German.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

Following my suggestion, the dramaturgy of the festival was structured around a selection of entries taken from one of my favourite dictionaries: the Dictionary of Untranslatables (edited by Barbara Cassin, Emily Apter et al). The topics and their description were as follows:<\/span><\/p>

- DOXA: Who thinks what? Who will not be seen, who will be heard, who will be excluded?<\/span><\/p>

- TRADUIRE: What is lost in translation, what is found, how do we translate physical and emotional aspects as well as orality, what would be an untranslatable text?<\/span><\/p>

- AUFHEBUNG: Who knows what the outcome will be? What future will emerge from our memory? How different are the learning cultures of Eastern and Western Europe? Can memory cultures from different regions of the world learn from each other?<\/span><\/p>

- DESENGA\u00d1O: Can art with the power of (Ent-)T\u00e4uschung and the magic of words counteract injustices? How to talk about what almost everyone is silent about, class differences?<\/span><\/p>

- CONSENSUS: What does sexuality and sexism mean in the literary context? Who comes to the fore, who is left behind?<\/span><\/p>

- COMMON SENSE: How can literature be inclusive? What does writing as a blind person entail?<\/span><\/p>


<\/span>Participating in Westopia were Verena Brakonier & Greta Granderath \u00c7akey Blond (Thomas Bartling & David Kilin\u00e7), Belo Cipriani, Andr\u00e9s Claro, ConstructLab, Fitzgerald & Rimini, KAJET Journal, KUOKO, Michaela Meli\u00e1n, Alia Trabucco, Zweitzeugen e.V., WORD Magazin, and many more.<\/span><\/p>


<\/span>Links about Westopia:<\/span><\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

On the website of the Literature Center, Burg H\u00fclshoff:<\/span>
<\/span>https:\/\/www.burg-huelshoff.de\/programm\/kalender\/westopia<\/span><\/a><\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

Report in NRW Kultur:<\/span>
<\/span>https:\/\/www.nrw-kultur.de\/en\/programmes\/international-visitors-programme\/projects\/center-for-literature-westopia-the-white-white-west-a-performative-exploration-of-the-multilingual-literature-of-the-future<\/span><\/a><\/p>\",\r\n \"align\": \"top\",\r\n \"row\": 10,\r\n \"col\": 0,\r\n \"colspan\": 10,\r\n \"offsetx\": 0,\r\n \"offsety\": 0,\r\n \"spaceabove\": 0,\r\n \"spacebelow\": 0,\r\n \"yvel\": 1,\r\n \"push\": 0,\r\n \"relid\": 21,\r\n \"absolute_position\": false\r\n },\r\n {\r\n \"type\": \"text\",\r\n \"cont\": \"

Vocations - Reimagining Lied (2023-)<\/h1>\",\r\n \"align\": \"top\",\r\n \"row\": 11,\r\n \"col\": 0,\r\n \"colspan\": 10,\r\n \"offsetx\": 0,\r\n \"offsety\": 0,\r\n \"spaceabove\": 0,\r\n \"spacebelow\": 0,\r\n \"yvel\": 1,\r\n \"push\": 0,\r\n \"relid\": 19,\r\n \"absolute_position\": false\r\n },\r\n {\r\n \"type\": \"text\",\r\n \"cont\": \"

+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\",\r\n \"align\": \"middle\",\r\n \"row\": 11,\r\n \"col\": 11,\r\n \"colspan\": 1,\r\n \"offsetx\": 0,\r\n \"offsety\": 0,\r\n \"spaceabove\": 0,\r\n \"spacebelow\": 0,\r\n \"yvel\": 1,\r\n \"push\": 1,\r\n \"relid\": 36,\r\n \"absolute_position\": false\r\n },\r\n {\r\n \"type\": \"text\",\r\n \"cont\": \"

A<\/span><\/p>\",\r\n \"align\": \"top\",\r\n \"row\": 12,\r\n \"col\": 0,\r\n \"colspan\": 1,\r\n \"offsetx\": 0,\r\n \"offsety\": 0,\r\n \"spaceabove\": 0,\r\n \"spacebelow\": 0,\r\n \"yvel\": 1,\r\n \"push\": 0,\r\n \"relid\": 32,\r\n \"absolute_position\": false\r\n },\r\n {\r\n \"type\": \"text\",\r\n \"cont\": \"

In 2022, I proposed to Katharina Schultens, director of Haus f\u00fcr Poesie, the Vocations project, conceived as an exploration of questions such as \\\"What can a song mean today?\\\", \\\"How can the European Kunstlied tradition be re-imagined from a young, international perspective and by creators working at the boundaries of poetry and music?\\\". The project, re-conceived together with Katharina Schultens as a collaboration between Haus f\u00fcr Poesie, J\u00fcnge Akademie der K\u00fcnste and Schloss Wiepersdorf, was generously funded by the Berlin Senate of Culture. The other project director, in charge of production, was the great Timo Berger. During 2023, teams of specially selected poets, composers and musicians created new works collaboratively. Vocations established two parallel series of events: salons and premiere concerts.<\/span>
<\/span>
<\/span>With the aim of providing a connecting space in Berlin that could reinvent a transdisciplinary dialogue between the contemporary artistic production of the new poetry and new music artistic communities, Vocations initiated a series of salons that brought together composers, poets, critics and students of literature, composition, piano and singing, as well as other poetry and music enthusiasts. Through readings, performances and musical presentations that exemplified a wide range of possible fusions between poetry and music, these salons offered a place and a moment of connection for poets and composers to become mutually aware of what is being written and composed in Berlin today. Our motivation was the certainty that the relationship and mutual actualisation between today's poet and composer communities would be a great positive influence for both types of creators, and that Berlin was the right place to make it happen.<\/span>
<\/span>
<\/span>The Salons of Vocations were inspired by the classical Greek concept of the symposium and also by the social phenomenon of the \\\"Schubertiade\\\", which emerged from the salon culture of the 19th century. Consistent with the project's intention to conceive anew the Kunstlied genre, our project referred to Schubert not only as a composer but also as a crucial cultural figure in relation to the Salon format. Without this iconic composer, the Kunstlied genre would be inconceivable. Schubert composed his songs focusing on texts by poets who were his contemporaries, poets whom he was able to meet in person thanks to a then lively salon culture. Centuries have passed; the musical genre of the Kunstlied survives, but its dialogue with contemporary poetry has weakened. In Berlin, composers and poets used to meet continuously in literary salons and soir\u00e9es, where they could create joint works and discuss their creation. After World War II, these spaces of artistic collaboration, especially in the tradition of art song, were interrupted and only resumed in isolated cases. In our opinion, the international composition of Berlin today offers ideal conditions for the development of a series of events that can bring together composers and poets from a wide range of traditions and languages so that they can create and perform together new works that revisit and update the fusion of poetry and learned music.<\/span>
<\/span>
<\/span>Conceived as an open space, Vocations' salon format integrated surprise performances by writers, composers and musicians from the Berlin scene in the context of a program carefully curated by me. With the support of the Junge Akademie der K\u00fcnste, Vocations organized two Salons at the Clubraum of the Akademie der K\u00fcnste (Hanseatenweg) in which works by ADK grantee composers (such as Aribert Reimann, Luciano Berio and Georges Aperghis, among others) and young artists participating in the project were performed. Focused on maintaining the Salons as an open space for spontaneous artistic collaboration and transdisciplinary artistic experimentation, our team developed this Salon format as a work in progress, always taking into account the suggestions of the participating artists. The Vocations salons presented a wide range of combination styles between text and music, from arrangements of poetry songs by composers who can nowadays be considered Klassiker der Moderne, to experimental fusions and collisions of poetry with popular music and folk songs performed by young poets and musicians. Seeking to represent and cultivate the multicultural and multilingual dimension of today's Berlin art community, each of our Salon events featured at least 5 different languages, often with poetry read in the original (non-German) language along with its translation. Both salons were led by a wonderful and fun professional moderator, Drag Queen Audrey Naline, whose frankness and playfulness added a taste of cabaret to the events. Each salon drew an audience of 150 people or more.<\/span>

<\/span><\/p>

The first salon on <\/span>23.10.09 featured the poets and composers Avrina Prabala-Joslin (b. 1992 in Tamil Nadu) and Sol-i So (b. 1990 in South Korea), as well as VictorPiano (b. 1991 in Chile) and Felipe S\u00e1ez Riquelme (b. 1986 in Chile), who developed in parallel new experimental art songs that were later premiered in Heimathafen Neuk\u00f6lln at the end of October. Composer and singer Sol-i So performed Pansori Simcheongga, a song from the Korean musical tradition, accompanied by percussionist Bo-Sung Kim. Poets Avrina Prabala-Joslin and Felipe S\u00e1ez Riquelme performed a collaborative reading performance along with electro-acoustic interventions and multimedia composer VictorPiano sang a selection of Latin American folk songs. As part of our collaboration with the ADK, the salon also featured performances of works by members of the Akademie der K\u00fcnste: and Sequenza III by Italian composer Luciano Berio (sung by Svetlana Mamresheva) and Retrouvailles (2013) by Greek-French composer Georges Aperghis (performed by C\u00e9cile Madelin and Marine Madelin). In addition, as a sign of our open format, the salon featured surprise readings and musical performances by poets Max Czollek, <\/span>Kinga Toth, Matias Dungascik and Odile Kennel, singers Andrew Munn and Merit Ariane Stephanos, pianist Jacob Greenberg and many others.<\/span>
<\/span>
<\/span>The second salon <\/span>on 16.11.23 featured performances and readings by the second team of <\/span>artists participating in Vocations: Cia Rinne, Catalina Rueda and Nail Do\u011fan, whose new experimental art songs conceived in artistic collaboration were then premiered in December. Poet Cia Rinne sang accompanied by Daniel Roth at the Harmonium. Composer Catalina Rueda invited the audience to join in a participatory vocal performance. Author Nail Do\u011fan read a dramaturgical sequence of poems specially written for the occasion, in dialogue with oud music performed by the talented blind musician Hicham El Madkouri. As part of our collaboration with the ADK, the salon featured Aribert Reimann's <\/span>Eingedunkelt <\/span><\/i>(based on poems by Paul Celan) performed by Ursula Hesse von den Steinen. Andrew Munn sang arrangements of songs by Hans Eisler on poems by Bertolt Brecht, accompanied by Marlene Weiss on piano. Expanding the range of performances that unite text and music, singer-songwriter Susie Asado sang minimalist songs that played with the boundaries between popular music and poetry. <\/span>Insisting once again on the format of the Salons as an open space, the event featured surprise readings and musical performances by poets Donna Stonecipher, Hn Lyonga, Irina Bondas, Eugene Ostashevsky and Ricardo Domeneck, singers Clarisse Fougera and Monika Krukierek and others.<\/span>
<\/span>
<\/span>The Vocations premiere concerts included premieres of collaborations between poets and composers specially commissioned for the project. In the framework of a cooperation between the Haus f\u00fcr Poesie and the Kulturstiftung Schloss Wiepersdorf, the participating artists met during an artist residency at Schloss Wiepersdorf (Brandenburg), where they began to explore each other's artistic production. Months of correspondence and collaboration followed. As is characteristic of the Kunstlied genre, the works that were to be premiered at the concerts at the end of the year combined poetry and music; what is particular to our project is that these works were conceived in a transdisciplinary way from the outset, i.e. without a pre-existing text. This approach to the tradition of art song, which did not mean a musical arrangement of a previous text but a particular form of co-creation was a characteristic proposal of Vocations. The premieres took place in Heimathafen Neuk\u00f6lln on 26.10. and 21.12.2023.<\/span><\/p>

As artistic director of Vocations, I paired participating poets and composers according to artistic affinity and language community. The performers for the world premieres of the commissioned works were selected by the composers themselves: Sol-i So and Avrina Prabala-Joslin favoured soprano Angelica Luz and percussionist Rie Watanabe for the world premiere of their collaborative work \u201cWith you, I learned to plant a poem, grow a song\u201d on 26.10.2023. The collaborative work \\\"Animita\\\" by VictorPiano and Felipe S\u00e1ez Riquelme was premiered, also on 26.10., by the composer himself playing live electronics together with tenor Francisco Huerta. On 21.12.2023., singer Cansu Tanr\u0131kulu and Nick Dunston on double bass premiered the cycle \\\"derializi\u00f6s\\\" conceived by poet Nail Do\u011fan and composer Cenk Erg\u00fcn. The piece \\\"Disparitions - Encounters at the Lismonian Archive\\\" for voices and prepared piano, by poet Cia Rinne and composer Catalina Rueda, was also performed on 21.12.2023 by singer Johanna Vargas, pianist Magdalena Cerezo and the poet in recitation. Boussa Thiam wonderfully moderated both premiere concerts.<\/span><\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

Links about Vocations:<\/span><\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

Vocations on the website of Haus f\u00fcr Poesie:<\/span><\/p>

https:\/\/www.haus-fuer-poesie.org\/de\/literaturwerkstatt-berlin\/vocations\/<\/span>
<\/span>
<\/span><\/a>Press releases on the website of Haus f\u00fcr Poesie:<\/span>
<\/span>https:\/\/www.haus-fuer-poesie.org\/de\/presse\/pressemitteilungen\/vocations-eine-mehrsprachige-transdisziplinaere-neuerfindung-des-kunstliedes-berlin<\/span><\/a><\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

Press:<\/span><\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

Diario y Radio Universidad de Chile Culture: Chilean artists take the stage in Berlin (20.10.2023):<\/span>
<\/span>https:\/\/radio.uchile.cl\/2023\/10\/20\/artistas-chilenos-se-toman-la-escena-en-berlin\/<\/span>
<\/span>
<\/span><\/a>Radio Beethoven, P. Universidad Cat\u00f3lica de Chile:<\/span>
<\/span>https:\/\/www.beethovenfm.cl\/recomendado\/victor-gutierrez-estrena-el-ciclo-de-canciones-animita-en-berlin\/<\/span><\/a><\/p>


<\/span>Desbandada Magazine, Berlin (14.11.2023): <\/span>
<\/span>https:\/\/revistadesbandada.com\/2023\/11\/14\/vocations\/<\/span><\/a><\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

Tipp Berlin: Hall of Vocations | Akademie der K\u00fcnste Hanseatenweg:<\/span>
<\/span>https:\/\/www.tip-berlin.de\/event\/musik+konzert\/1465.2577837180\/<\/span><\/a><\/p>

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Poetry<\/a>, artistic direction,<\/span><\/a> painting and drawing<\/a>, translation<\/a>, publications<\/a>, press<\/a>, bio<\/a>.<\/span><\/h1>\",\r\n \"align\": \"bottom\",\r\n \"row\": 0,\r\n \"col\": 0,\r\n \"colspan\": 12,\r\n \"offsetx\": 0,\r\n \"offsety\": 0,\r\n \"spaceabove\": 0,\r\n \"spacebelow\": 0,\r\n \"yvel\": 1,\r\n \"push\": 0,\r\n \"relid\": 5,\r\n \"absolute_position\": false,\r\n \"stickytop\": \"111\",\r\n \"frameOverflow\": \"\"\r\n },\r\n {\r\n \"type\": \"stack\",\r\n \"cont\": [\r\n {\r\n \"type\": \"text\",\r\n \"cont\": \"

The fact that writing can develop a scenic dimension and that public poetry readings call for a particular kind of dramaturgy was conceivable to me from early on, probably because thanks to my father's acting career I grew up attending theatre rehearsals and premieres. In addition to participating as an author performing my poetry in international festivals, I have been working for long as artistic director of literary events in Chile and Germany.<\/span><\/p>\",\r\n \"align\": \"onethird\",\r\n \"row\": -1,\r\n \"col\": 0,\r\n \"colspan\": 12,\r\n \"offsetx\": 0,\r\n \"offsety\": 0,\r\n \"spaceabove\": 0,\r\n \"spacebelow\": 0,\r\n \"yvel\": 1,\r\n \"push\": 0,\r\n \"relid\": 7,\r\n \"absolute_position\": false\r\n }\r\n ],\r\n \"relid\": 1,\r\n \"colspan\": 12,\r\n \"col\": 0,\r\n \"push\": 0,\r\n \"row\": 1,\r\n \"offsetx\": 0,\r\n \"offsety\": 0,\r\n \"spaceabove\": 0,\r\n \"spacebelow\": 0,\r\n \"align\": \"bottom\",\r\n \"yvel\": 1,\r\n \"absolute_position\": false\r\n },\r\n {\r\n \"type\": \"text\",\r\n \"cont\": \"

La fertilidad de algunos muertos (2009)<\/h1>\",\r\n \"align\": \"middle\",\r\n \"row\": 2,\r\n \"col\": 0,\r\n \"colspan\": 11,\r\n \"offsetx\": 0,\r\n \"offsety\": 0,\r\n \"spaceabove\": 0,\r\n \"spacebelow\": 0,\r\n \"yvel\": 1,\r\n \"push\": 0,\r\n \"relid\": 6,\r\n \"absolute_position\": false,\r\n \"frameOverflow\": \"\"\r\n },\r\n {\r\n \"type\": \"text\",\r\n \"cont\": \"

+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\",\r\n \"align\": \"middle\",\r\n \"row\": 2,\r\n \"col\": 11,\r\n \"colspan\": 1,\r\n \"offsetx\": 0,\r\n \"offsety\": 0,\r\n \"spaceabove\": 0,\r\n \"spacebelow\": 0,\r\n \"yvel\": 1,\r\n \"push\": 0,\r\n \"relid\": 3,\r\n \"absolute_position\": false\r\n },\r\n {\r\n \"type\": \"text\",\r\n \"cont\": \"

A<\/span><\/p>\",\r\n \"align\": \"middle\",\r\n \"row\": 3,\r\n \"col\": 0,\r\n \"colspan\": 1,\r\n \"offsetx\": 0,\r\n \"offsety\": 0,\r\n \"spaceabove\": 0,\r\n \"spacebelow\": 0,\r\n \"yvel\": 1,\r\n \"push\": 0,\r\n \"relid\": 26,\r\n \"absolute_position\": false\r\n },\r\n {\r\n \"type\": \"text\",\r\n \"cont\": \"

In 2009, I conceived and directed a series of performative readings in Santiago, Chile, in a dynamic space called Estudio Elefante. In this series of events, which I titled La fertilidad de algunos muertos (\u201cThe fertility of some deceased\u201d), young poets paid homage to deceased poets. Each event focused on putting the work of new poets in dialogue with that of one or more deceased poets, regardless of language or country. The performative readings highlighted themes of literary influence and translation. The dramaturgy, which included live music, emphasised the multidisciplinary. Homage was paid to poets such as Paul Celan, William Blake, Allen Ginsberg and others. Chilean poets such as Javier Bello, Alejandra del R\u00edo, Carmen Garc\u00eda and others participated.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\",\r\n \"align\": \"top\",\r\n \"row\": 4,\r\n \"col\": 0,\r\n \"colspan\": 12,\r\n \"offsetx\": 0,\r\n \"offsety\": 0,\r\n \"spaceabove\": 0,\r\n \"spacebelow\": 0,\r\n \"yvel\": 1,\r\n \"push\": 0,\r\n \"relid\": 9,\r\n \"absolute_position\": false,\r\n \"frameOverflow\": \"\"\r\n },\r\n {\r\n \"type\": \"text\",\r\n \"cont\": \"

Hafenlesung (2015-2022)<\/h1>\",\r\n \"align\": \"middle\",\r\n \"row\": 5,\r\n \"col\": 0,\r\n \"colspan\": 11,\r\n \"offsetx\": 0,\r\n \"offsety\": 0,\r\n \"spaceabove\": 0,\r\n \"spacebelow\": 0,\r\n \"yvel\": 1,\r\n \"push\": 0,\r\n \"relid\": 13,\r\n \"absolute_position\": false,\r\n \"frameOverflow\": \"\"\r\n },\r\n {\r\n \"type\": \"text\",\r\n \"cont\": \"

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A<\/span><\/p>\",\r\n \"align\": \"top\",\r\n \"row\": 6,\r\n \"col\": 0,\r\n \"colspan\": 1,\r\n \"offsetx\": 0,\r\n \"offsety\": 0,\r\n \"spaceabove\": 0,\r\n \"spacebelow\": 0,\r\n \"yvel\": 1,\r\n \"push\": 0,\r\n \"relid\": 28,\r\n \"absolute_position\": false\r\n },\r\n {\r\n \"type\": \"text\",\r\n \"cont\": \"

After several years of nomadism, in 2015 I co-founded in Hamburg, Germany, the international authors collective Found in Translation (consisting of Nefeli Kavouras, Hugh James, Jonis Hartmann, Annika D\u00f6rau and others). The collective's platform for literary activism was the Hafenlesung (\\\"Harbour Reading\\\"): a multilingual and also often multidisciplinary reading series that established a new, mostly young audience for international contemporary literature in Hamburg. The program promoted heterogeneity, presenting authors from a wide range of genres, identities and generations. With an emphasis on multilingualism, each event presented works in four to five different languages (when not in German, along with their translation). Our Found in Translation collective developed this reading series as a platform for representing and cultivating the cultural variety inherent to Hamburg, a port city that has for centuries been a place where many languages and cultures overlap. The Hafenlesung was thus a place of resonance for literature written in Germany in languages other than German, highlighting translation as an important cultural process and seeking to re-signify the concept of \\\"national literature\\\".\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

The Hafenlesung organised readings in collaboration with German independent publishers such as Verlagshaus Berlin, Kookbooks, Edition Nautilus and Salis Verlag. The Hafenlesung also organised events in collaboration with institutions such as the DAAD Artists-in-Residence Program in Berlin, the LATINALE festival, the Cervantes Institute Hamburg and the Burg-H\u00fclshoff Literature Center. We also premiered new German translations - commissioned especially for our events - of the work of foreign poets based in Germany whose poetry was not available in German until then (such as Rita Gonz\u00e1lez Hesaynes, Luis Varela and others). We also made a point of presenting, whenever possible, the translators reading on stage alongside the authors. In addition, delicious vegan catering was served free of charge as part of each event, creating a good atmosphere that brought audience and performers together.<\/span>
<\/span>
<\/span>Writers from more than 30 countries and 20 languages participated in the Hafenlesung reading series. Our venues were first the club and alternative cultural center Golem and later the Nachtasyl at the Thalia Theater in Hamburg. In 2017, our collective brought the concept of the Hafenlesung through a performative reading in the context of the international literature festival BuchBasel. In 2018, the Hafenlesung became part of Unabh\u00e4ngige Lesereihen, of which I was later elected board member. In 2019, the Hafenlesung took part of ULF - The Festival of the Independent reading series of Germany, Austria and Switzerland. During the years 2015-22, the Hafenlesung was supported by the Beh\u00f6rde f\u00fcr Kultur und Medien Hamburg, the Hamburgische Kulturstiftung, the Slowenisches Kulturzentrum Berlin, the Hamburg Writers' Room, the DAAD and Ms. Annegret Weitk\u00e4mper-Krug.<\/span>
<\/span>
<\/span>Links about the Hafenlesung:<\/span><\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

Found in Translation writers collective, Facebook page:<\/span>
<\/span>www.facebook.com\/foundintrans<\/span>
<\/span>
<\/span><\/a>On the website of Unabh\u00e4ngige Lesereihen: <\/span>
<\/span>https:\/\/www.lesereihen.org\/reihen-hafenlesung<\/span><\/a><\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

Hafen Lesung at the Burg-H\u00fclshoff Literature Center, M\u00fcnster:<\/span><\/p>

http:\/\/www.burg-huelshoff.de\/blog\/hafen-lesung<\/span><\/a><\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

Hafen Lesung in UNISCENE magazine, Germany:<\/span><\/p>

https:\/\/issuu.com\/uniscene\/docs\/uniscene_hamburg_4-2016<\/span><\/a><\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

St\u00e9phanie Divaret about Hafen Lesung in BuchBasel, in FixPoetry:<\/span><\/p>

https:\/\/www.fixpoetry.com\/feuilleton\/kolumnen\/2017\/hafenlesung-in-basel<\/span><\/a><\/p>\",\r\n \"align\": \"top\",\r\n \"row\": 7,\r\n \"col\": 0,\r\n \"colspan\": 12,\r\n \"offsetx\": 0,\r\n \"offsety\": 0,\r\n \"spaceabove\": 0,\r\n \"spacebelow\": 0,\r\n \"yvel\": 1,\r\n \"push\": 0,\r\n \"relid\": 17,\r\n \"absolute_position\": false,\r\n \"frameOverflow\": \"\"\r\n },\r\n {\r\n \"type\": \"text\",\r\n \"cont\": \"

Westopia - festival for a multilingual literature of the future (2021)<\/h1>\",\r\n \"align\": \"middle\",\r\n \"row\": 8,\r\n \"col\": 0,\r\n \"colspan\": 11,\r\n \"offsetx\": 0,\r\n \"offsety\": 0,\r\n \"spaceabove\": 0,\r\n \"spacebelow\": 0,\r\n \"yvel\": 1,\r\n \"push\": 0,\r\n \"relid\": 15,\r\n \"absolute_position\": false,\r\n \"frameOverflow\": \"\"\r\n },\r\n {\r\n \"type\": \"text\",\r\n \"cont\": \"

+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\",\r\n \"align\": \"middle\",\r\n \"row\": 8,\r\n \"col\": 11,\r\n \"colspan\": 1,\r\n \"offsetx\": 0,\r\n \"offsety\": 0,\r\n \"spaceabove\": 0,\r\n \"spacebelow\": 0,\r\n \"yvel\": 1,\r\n \"push\": 0,\r\n \"relid\": 35,\r\n \"absolute_position\": false\r\n },\r\n {\r\n \"type\": \"text\",\r\n \"cont\": \"

A<\/span><\/p>\",\r\n \"align\": \"middle\",\r\n \"row\": 9,\r\n \"col\": 0,\r\n \"colspan\": 1,\r\n \"offsetx\": 0,\r\n \"offsety\": 0,\r\n \"spaceabove\": 0,\r\n \"spacebelow\": 0,\r\n \"yvel\": 1,\r\n \"push\": 0,\r\n \"relid\": 30,\r\n \"absolute_position\": false\r\n },\r\n {\r\n \"type\": \"text\",\r\n \"cont\": \"

As a member of the international author collective Found in Translation, I co-organized in 2021 Westopia, Festival for a Multilingual Literature of the Future at the Literature Center, Burg H\u00fclshoff (M\u00fcnster). The festival was curated by our Author:innenkollektiv and J\u00f6rg Albrecht, artistic director of the Literature Center, Burg H\u00fclshoff.<\/span><\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

For five days in September 2021, the Westopia Festival organised readings, performances, workshops and debates. Sharing, discussing and creating, we sought to map an imaginary nation (a \u201cState of Mind\u201d) that would give resonance and relevance to the questions and repressions we face as foreign authors writing in Germany in languages other than German.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

Following my suggestion, the dramaturgy of the festival was structured around a selection of entries taken from one of my favourite dictionaries: the Dictionary of Untranslatables (edited by Barbara Cassin, Emily Apter et al). The topics and their description were as follows:<\/span><\/p>

- DOXA: Who thinks what? Who will not be seen, who will be heard, who will be excluded?<\/span><\/p>

- TRADUIRE: What is lost in translation, what is found, how do we translate physical and emotional aspects as well as orality, what would be an untranslatable text?<\/span><\/p>

- AUFHEBUNG: Who knows what the outcome will be? What future will emerge from our memory? How different are the learning cultures of Eastern and Western Europe? Can memory cultures from different regions of the world learn from each other?<\/span><\/p>

- DESENGA\u00d1O: Can art with the power of (Ent-)T\u00e4uschung and the magic of words counteract injustices? How to talk about what almost everyone is silent about, class differences?<\/span><\/p>

- CONSENSUS: What does sexuality and sexism mean in the literary context? Who comes to the fore, who is left behind?<\/span><\/p>

- COMMON SENSE: How can literature be inclusive? What does writing as a blind person entail?<\/span><\/p>


<\/span>Participating in Westopia were Verena Brakonier & Greta Granderath \u00c7akey Blond (Thomas Bartling & David Kilin\u00e7), Belo Cipriani, Andr\u00e9s Claro, ConstructLab, Fitzgerald & Rimini, KAJET Journal, KUOKO, Michaela Meli\u00e1n, Alia Trabucco, Zweitzeugen e.V., WORD Magazin, and many more.<\/span><\/p>


<\/span>Links about Westopia:<\/span><\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

On the website of the Literature Center, Burg H\u00fclshoff:<\/span>
<\/span>https:\/\/www.burg-huelshoff.de\/programm\/kalender\/westopia<\/span><\/a><\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

Report in NRW Kultur:<\/span>
<\/span>https:\/\/www.nrw-kultur.de\/en\/programmes\/international-visitors-programme\/projects\/center-for-literature-westopia-the-white-white-west-a-performative-exploration-of-the-multilingual-literature-of-the-future<\/span><\/a><\/p>\",\r\n \"align\": \"top\",\r\n \"row\": 10,\r\n \"col\": 0,\r\n \"colspan\": 12,\r\n \"offsetx\": 0,\r\n \"offsety\": 0,\r\n \"spaceabove\": 0,\r\n \"spacebelow\": 0,\r\n \"yvel\": 1,\r\n \"push\": 0,\r\n \"relid\": 21,\r\n \"absolute_position\": false,\r\n \"frameOverflow\": \"\"\r\n },\r\n {\r\n \"type\": \"text\",\r\n \"cont\": \"

Vocations - Reimagining Lied (2023-)<\/h1>\",\r\n \"align\": \"middle\",\r\n \"row\": 11,\r\n \"col\": 0,\r\n \"colspan\": 11,\r\n \"offsetx\": 0,\r\n \"offsety\": 0,\r\n \"spaceabove\": 0,\r\n \"spacebelow\": 0,\r\n \"yvel\": 1,\r\n \"push\": 0,\r\n \"relid\": 19,\r\n \"absolute_position\": false,\r\n \"frameOverflow\": \"\"\r\n },\r\n {\r\n \"type\": \"text\",\r\n \"cont\": \"

+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\",\r\n \"align\": \"middle\",\r\n \"row\": 11,\r\n \"col\": 11,\r\n \"colspan\": 1,\r\n \"offsetx\": 0,\r\n \"offsety\": 0,\r\n \"spaceabove\": 0,\r\n \"spacebelow\": 0,\r\n \"yvel\": 1,\r\n \"push\": 0,\r\n \"relid\": 36,\r\n \"absolute_position\": false\r\n },\r\n {\r\n \"type\": \"text\",\r\n \"cont\": \"

A<\/span><\/p>\",\r\n \"align\": \"top\",\r\n \"row\": 12,\r\n \"col\": 0,\r\n \"colspan\": 1,\r\n \"offsetx\": 0,\r\n \"offsety\": 0,\r\n \"spaceabove\": 0,\r\n \"spacebelow\": 0,\r\n \"yvel\": 1,\r\n \"push\": 0,\r\n \"relid\": 32,\r\n \"absolute_position\": false\r\n },\r\n {\r\n \"type\": \"text\",\r\n \"cont\": \"

In 2022, I proposed to Katharina Schultens, director of Haus f\u00fcr Poesie, the Vocations project, conceived as an exploration of questions such as \\\"What can a song mean today?\\\", \\\"How can the European Kunstlied tradition be re-imagined from a young, international perspective and by creators working at the boundaries of poetry and music?\\\". The project, re-conceived together with Katharina Schultens as a collaboration between Haus f\u00fcr Poesie, J\u00fcnge Akademie der K\u00fcnste and Schloss Wiepersdorf, was generously funded by the Berlin Senate of Culture. The other project director, in charge of production, was the great Timo Berger. During 2023, teams of specially selected poets, composers and musicians created new works collaboratively. Vocations established two parallel series of events: salons and premiere concerts.<\/span>
<\/span>
<\/span>With the aim of providing a connecting space in Berlin that could reinvent a transdisciplinary dialogue between the contemporary artistic production of the new poetry and new music artistic communities, Vocations initiated a series of salons that brought together composers, poets, critics and students of literature, composition, piano and singing, as well as other poetry and music enthusiasts. Through readings, performances and musical presentations that exemplified a wide range of possible fusions between poetry and music, these salons offered a place and a moment of connection for poets and composers to become mutually aware of what is being written and composed in Berlin today. Our motivation was the certainty that the relationship and mutual actualisation between today's poet and composer communities would be a great positive influence for both types of creators, and that Berlin was the right place to make it happen.<\/span>
<\/span>
<\/span>The Salons of Vocations were inspired by the classical Greek concept of the symposium and also by the social phenomenon of the \\\"Schubertiade\\\", which emerged from the salon culture of the 19th century. Consistent with the project's intention to conceive anew the Kunstlied genre, our project referred to Schubert not only as a composer but also as a crucial cultural figure in relation to the Salon format. Without this iconic composer, the Kunstlied genre would be inconceivable. Schubert composed his songs focusing on texts by poets who were his contemporaries, poets whom he was able to meet in person thanks to a then lively salon culture. Centuries have passed; the musical genre of the Kunstlied survives, but its dialogue with contemporary poetry has weakened. In Berlin, composers and poets used to meet continuously in literary salons and soir\u00e9es, where they could create joint works and discuss their creation. After World War II, these spaces of artistic collaboration, especially in the tradition of art song, were interrupted and only resumed in isolated cases. In our opinion, the international composition of Berlin today offers ideal conditions for the development of a series of events that can bring together composers and poets from a wide range of traditions and languages so that they can create and perform together new works that revisit and update the fusion of poetry and learned music.<\/span>
<\/span>
<\/span>Conceived as an open space, Vocations' salon format integrated surprise performances by writers, composers and musicians from the Berlin scene in the context of a program carefully curated by me. With the support of the Junge Akademie der K\u00fcnste, Vocations organized two Salons at the Clubraum of the Akademie der K\u00fcnste (Hanseatenweg) in which works by ADK grantee composers (such as Aribert Reimann, Luciano Berio and Georges Aperghis, among others) and young artists participating in the project were performed. Focused on maintaining the Salons as an open space for spontaneous artistic collaboration and transdisciplinary artistic experimentation, our team developed this Salon format as a work in progress, always taking into account the suggestions of the participating artists. The Vocations salons presented a wide range of combination styles between text and music, from arrangements of poetry songs by composers who can nowadays be considered Klassiker der Moderne, to experimental fusions and collisions of poetry with popular music and folk songs performed by young poets and musicians. Seeking to represent and cultivate the multicultural and multilingual dimension of today's Berlin art community, each of our Salon events featured at least 5 different languages, often with poetry read in the original (non-German) language along with its translation. Both salons were led by a wonderful and fun professional moderator, Drag Queen Audrey Naline, whose frankness and playfulness added a taste of cabaret to the events. Each salon drew an audience of 150 people or more.<\/span>

<\/span><\/p>

The first salon on <\/span>23.10.09 featured the poets and composers Avrina Prabala-Joslin (b. 1992 in Tamil Nadu) and Sol-i So (b. 1990 in South Korea), as well as VictorPiano (b. 1991 in Chile) and Felipe S\u00e1ez Riquelme (b. 1986 in Chile), who developed in parallel new experimental art songs that were later premiered in Heimathafen Neuk\u00f6lln at the end of October. Composer and singer Sol-i So performed Pansori Simcheongga, a song from the Korean musical tradition, accompanied by percussionist Bo-Sung Kim. Poets Avrina Prabala-Joslin and Felipe S\u00e1ez Riquelme performed a collaborative reading performance along with electro-acoustic interventions and multimedia composer VictorPiano sang a selection of Latin American folk songs. As part of our collaboration with the ADK, the salon also featured performances of works by members of the Akademie der K\u00fcnste: and Sequenza III by Italian composer Luciano Berio (sung by Svetlana Mamresheva) and Retrouvailles (2013) by Greek-French composer Georges Aperghis (performed by C\u00e9cile Madelin and Marine Madelin). In addition, as a sign of our open format, the salon featured surprise readings and musical performances by poets Max Czollek, <\/span>Kinga Toth, Matias Dungascik and Odile Kennel, singers Andrew Munn and Merit Ariane Stephanos, pianist Jacob Greenberg and many others.<\/span>
<\/span>
<\/span>The second salon <\/span>on 16.11.23 featured performances and readings by the second team of <\/span>artists participating in Vocations: Cia Rinne, Catalina Rueda and Nail Do\u011fan, whose new experimental art songs conceived in artistic collaboration were then premiered in December. Poet Cia Rinne sang accompanied by Daniel Roth at the Harmonium. Composer Catalina Rueda invited the audience to join in a participatory vocal performance. Author Nail Do\u011fan read a dramaturgical sequence of poems specially written for the occasion, in dialogue with oud music performed by the talented blind musician Hicham El Madkouri. As part of our collaboration with the ADK, the salon featured Aribert Reimann's <\/span>Eingedunkelt <\/span><\/i>(based on poems by Paul Celan) performed by Ursula Hesse von den Steinen. Andrew Munn sang arrangements of songs by Hans Eisler on poems by Bertolt Brecht, accompanied by Marlene Weiss on piano. Expanding the range of performances that unite text and music, singer-songwriter Susie Asado sang minimalist songs that played with the boundaries between popular music and poetry. <\/span>Insisting once again on the format of the Salons as an open space, the event featured surprise readings and musical performances by poets Donna Stonecipher, Hn Lyonga, Irina Bondas, Eugene Ostashevsky and Ricardo Domeneck, singers Clarisse Fougera and Monika Krukierek and others.<\/span>
<\/span>
<\/span>The Vocations premiere concerts included premieres of collaborations between poets and composers specially commissioned for the project. In the framework of a cooperation between the Haus f\u00fcr Poesie and the Kulturstiftung Schloss Wiepersdorf, the participating artists met during an artist residency at Schloss Wiepersdorf (Brandenburg), where they began to explore each other's artistic production. Months of correspondence and collaboration followed. As is characteristic of the Kunstlied genre, the works that were to be premiered at the concerts at the end of the year combined poetry and music; what is particular to our project is that these works were conceived in a transdisciplinary way from the outset, i.e. without a pre-existing text. This approach to the tradition of art song, which did not mean a musical arrangement of a previous text but a particular form of co-creation was a characteristic proposal of Vocations. The premieres took place in Heimathafen Neuk\u00f6lln on 26.10. and 21.12.2023.<\/span><\/p>

As artistic director of Vocations, I paired participating poets and composers according to artistic affinity and language community. The performers for the world premieres of the commissioned works were selected by the composers themselves: Sol-i So and Avrina Prabala-Joslin favoured soprano Angelica Luz and percussionist Rie Watanabe for the world premiere of their collaborative work \u201cWith you, I learned to plant a poem, grow a song\u201d on 26.10.2023. The collaborative work \\\"Animita\\\" by VictorPiano and Felipe S\u00e1ez Riquelme was premiered, also on 26.10., by the composer himself playing live electronics together with tenor Francisco Huerta. On 21.12.2023., singer Cansu Tanr\u0131kulu and Nick Dunston on double bass premiered the cycle \\\"derializi\u00f6s\\\" conceived by poet Nail Do\u011fan and composer Cenk Erg\u00fcn. The piece \\\"Disparitions - Encounters at the Lismonian Archive\\\" for voices and prepared piano, by poet Cia Rinne and composer Catalina Rueda, was also performed on 21.12.2023 by singer Johanna Vargas, pianist Magdalena Cerezo and the poet in recitation. Boussa Thiam wonderfully moderated both premiere concerts.<\/span><\/p>

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Links about Vocations:<\/span><\/p>

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Vocations on the website of Haus f\u00fcr Poesie:<\/span><\/p>

https:\/\/www.haus-fuer-poesie.org\/de\/literaturwerkstatt-berlin\/vocations\/<\/span>
<\/span>
<\/span><\/a>Press releases on the website of Haus f\u00fcr Poesie:<\/span>
<\/span>https:\/\/www.haus-fuer-poesie.org\/de\/presse\/pressemitteilungen\/vocations-eine-mehrsprachige-transdisziplinaere-neuerfindung-des-kunstliedes-berlin<\/span><\/a><\/p>

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Press:<\/span><\/p>

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Diario y Radio Universidad de Chile Culture: Chilean artists take the stage in Berlin (20.10.2023):<\/span>
<\/span>https:\/\/radio.uchile.cl\/2023\/10\/20\/artistas-chilenos-se-toman-la-escena-en-berlin\/<\/span>
<\/span>
<\/span><\/a>Radio Beethoven, P. Universidad Cat\u00f3lica de Chile:<\/span>
<\/span>https:\/\/www.beethovenfm.cl\/recomendado\/victor-gutierrez-estrena-el-ciclo-de-canciones-animita-en-berlin\/<\/span><\/a><\/p>


<\/span>Desbandada Magazine, Berlin (14.11.2023): <\/span>
<\/span>https:\/\/revistadesbandada.com\/2023\/11\/14\/vocations\/<\/span><\/a><\/p>

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Tipp Berlin: Hall of Vocations | Akademie der K\u00fcnste Hanseatenweg:<\/span>
<\/span>https:\/\/www.tip-berlin.de\/event\/musik+konzert\/1465.2577837180\/<\/span><\/a><\/p>

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