AWhen public life was shut down for a few weeks last year, many creative people took refuge in writing and digital. Some pondered what it meant to be locked in; the others looked for ways to find a momentum of solidarity in the common ground of this experience. One of these projects was “Today I write poems” by artist Katharina Zorn and actress Jasna Fritzi Bauer: Nobody should feel left out, everyone should feel inspired and send them poems, was their appeal. Both then curated the texts online.
A year later, public life takes place again. Around 2000 poems have come together and a selection can be read during the Frankfurt Book Fair. However, not at the fair itself – but in the Frankfurt cityscape. They are emblazoned in large letters on the Junior House, and they can also be read (with a little effort) on the cobblestones of the Römerberg. Right next to it is the Schirn Kunsthalle, in whose Badias restaurant the two artists show a film on the project that evening. Why there? “The book fair asked us quite spontaneously to organize an event. We are close friends with the owner who supported us directly. We are very pleased that it worked, ”says Katharina Zorn. After all, the Schirn is a central place in Frankfurt’s cultural life.
A lot of people came from Frankfurt’s nightlife, and they are happy that there is still an evening event. The film is short and impressive. One of the strongest texts, the first, is by Zorn himself. It is about the United States and the megalomania of former President Donald Trump. How did she come to write it? “At some point I didn’t have the nerve to just read children’s books to my daughter. So I read her poems by Thomas Brasch. When she slept, I felt like writing something myself. “
In Frankfurt: poems on the street
:
Image: Caroline Jebens
In the film, public figures recite poetry – actors, models, authors. The better lyrics go beyond the experience of the pandemic. Like that of Ubin Eoh, who writes entertainingly sarcastic about the ignorance of rich people, for whom it was easy to ignore the world’s problems while on a yacht. Or that of the writer Benjamin von Stuckrad-Barre, who writes about the forever closed Club 27, too legendary to really want to join it.
The actress Anna Maria Mühe will also read a text, she will also be there in the evening. “I spent the lockdown with Jasna and Katharina and our children. I don’t just support the project as a friend. I like the approach of giving poetry a more modern touch. ” During the pandemic she did not find her way to write. The text she reads in the film is not her own. Will she go to the book fair? “This year I don’t think it’s such an event worth supporting.” There had previously been controversy about the fact that a publisher that publishes right-wing radical authors had got a prominent stand at the fair. Some authors then canceled their readings.
Quotes from the books of these authors let Zorn und Bauer project onto the outer wall of the Schirn as a sign of solidarity. That was a rather spontaneous reaction, says Bauer, who is currently taking photos of it. Actually, it’s about the poems. They already worked together with the Bookfest, the festival of the book fair, last year. At that time the poems were performed in the Gallus Theater. “This year we wanted to do something again. The mass came to us, but we ourselves then suggested projecting the poems in the city. ” The project is thus returning to its original idea: in the lockdown, they hung up posters with QR codes to which anyone could then send poems. They should look like “open letters” back then.
Apparently none of the guests felt inspired to write. Only one young woman says that she wrote little letters to herself every month. But keep it to yourself and read it next year.
.