renshi.eu [GR-RO-FI-SK-NL-LT-FR-GR]

renshi.eu – A European Dialogue in Verse

Language: english
Translations: german (renshi.eu – ein europäischer Dialog in Versen)

renshi.eu – A European Dialogue in Verse

From January to April 2012, poets from all 27 countries of the European Union and the accession country Croatia wrote a chain poem or, as we call it, Renshi to Europe, for the Berlin Poetry Festival. In this format, the last line of each poem became the first of the next, thus connecting each poet to his/her predecessor. There were five groups with six to seven poets in each, creating five side-by-side chain poems by authors with 23 different native languages. All of the poems were translated into English and German.

The 28 authors involved in the renshi.eu experiment did not focus solely on the politics of the European crisis or the everyday problems of the people, but also the bigger picture, poetically examining the figures and myths of the European idea.  

Greece, as both the focus of the economic crisis and the birthplace of European culture and democracy, was the jumping off point for this Renshi. The Greek poet Yannis Stiggas’s poem was used as the starting point and basis for all five groups.  At the end, he also wrote a final verse that reflected on the extant traces of his own lines in the writing of the other authors.  

The premier of renshi.eu took place on June 2nd, 2012 at the Akademie der 
Künste (Academy of Arts) in Berlin.


renshi.eu is a production of the Berlin Poetry Festival 2012, under the patronage of the European Parliament, sponsored by the German Foreign Office, in cooperation with Literature Across Frontiers and the Education and Culture Directorate General of the European Commission, EUNIC Berlin and lyrikline.org. 
Project coordinators: Alexander Gumz and Juliane Otto

This project was organized by Literaturwerkstatt Berlin and their international partners, many of which belong to the lyrikline.org partner network:

Austria: Grazer Spielstätten GmbH
Belgium: International Center of Fine Arts Bozar
Bulgaria: Literaturen vestnik
Croatia: Croatian P.E.N. Centre
Cyprus: Ideogramma 
Czech Republic: Café Fra
Denmark: Danish Arts Council
Estonia: Estonian Literature Centre
Finland: Nuoren Voiman Liitto / Runokuu Festival
France: La passe du vent
Greece: Greek Culture Foundation
Hungary: Petöfi Irodalmi Múzeum
Ireland: Cuisle Limerick City International Poetry Festival
Italy: Absoluteville / Absolute Poetry
Latvia: Latvian Literature Centre
Lithuania: Koperator – The International Cultural Programme Centre
Luxembourg: Centre national de littérature
Malta: Inizjamed
Netherlands: Nederlands Letterenfonds / Dutch Foundation for Literature
Poland: Instytut Książki Kraków
Portugal: Casa Fernando Pessoa
Romania: Romanian Culture Institute Berlin
Sweden: Rámus förlag
Slovakia: Ars Poetica-International Poetry Festival
Slovenia: Days of Poetry and Wine
Spain: Propost.org
UK: Southbank Centre, London

With the kind support of:

British Council
Bulgarian Embassy and Bulgarian Culture Institute Berlin
Embassy of the Republic of Estonia
Embassy of Ireland
Embassy of the Republic of Latvia in the Federal Republic of Germany
Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania
Embassy of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands
Embassy of the Republic of Cyprus
Embassy of Spain
Royal Danish Embassy
Swedish Embassy, Berlin
Representation of the German-Speaking Community of Wallonia and the Federation 
Wallonie Brussels
Collegium Hungaricum Berlin
Danish Arts Council
FILI Finnish Literature Exchange
Finland Institute in Germany
Greek Culture Foundation
Institut français Berlin
Institute Ramon Llull
Instituto Cervantes Berlin
Italian Culture Institute Berlin
Culture Ministry of Luxembourg
Austrian Culture Forum Berlin
Romanian Culture Institute Berlin
Slovakian Institute in Berlin
Czech Centre Berlin

renshi.eu [GR-RO-FI-SK-NL-LT-FR-GR]

* 02.06.2012
lives in: left to right,

Yannis Stiggas (born 1977 in Athens, Greece) has published three collections of verse and his poems have also appeared in many magazines and anthologies. In 2007 he performed in the intothepill project in the Karaoke Poetry Bar in Athens. His poems impress with the power of their imagery and language. By opposing the internal and the external view, and abstract and sensual observations, his texts hover on the margins of perception.

Publications:

Ο δρόμος μέχρι το περίπτερο [The Way to the Kiosk] (Mikri Arktos, 2012)

Poetry collection with German translations: Edition Poesiefestival Berlin (hochroth, 2010)

Ισόπαλο τραύμα [An even wound] (Kedros, 2009)

Η όραση θ' αρχίσει ξανά [Vision will start again] (Kedros, 2006)

Η αλητεία του αίματος [The Vagabondage of blood] (Gavrilidis, 2004)

Svetlana Cârstean (born 1969 in Botosani, Romania) studied Romanian and French literature and is part of the group around Mircea Cărtărescu, one of Romania’s most significant proponents of postmodernism. She founded the literary circle Central. She has worked as a freelance journalist for press and televisions and had edited various magazines and anthologies. Her highly emotional and playful poems have brought her much attention at home and abroad as well as prizes and fellowships. Her first book, Floarea de menghină [The Vice Flower] was presented at the Bucharest Book Fair in June 2008 and was awarded the Poetry Debut Prize of the Romanian Writers‘ Association, the Mihai Eminescu National Prize, the Debut Prize of the magazine România literară and the Poetry Prize of Radio Romania Culture. Svetlana Cârstean lives and works in Bucharest, where she teaches French and is currently working on three long poems.

Publications:

Tablou de familie (Ed. Leka-Brîncus1995)

Floarea de menghina (Ed. Cartea Româneasca 2008)

Harry Salmenniemi (born 1983 in Jyväskylä, Finland) is treated as a promising young poet to watch in Finland. His publications to date include two books of verse and a novel. He is primarily interested in experimental poetry, naming his main influences as Flarf poetry and the Oulipo group, whose aim is to extend language via formal restraints. In the past few years Harry Salmenniemi has also been working as the editor of Finland’s biggest poetry magazine, Tuli & Savu and working on various creative projects with artists, musicians and circus artistes. Having lived for long periods in Rome and Melbourne, he has developed an aversion to the Finnish winter and hopes to be able to return to Italy soon.

Publications:

Virrata että (To stream that) (Otava 2008)

Texas, sakset (Texas, scissors) (Otava 2010)

Runojä (Poems) (Otava 2011)

Martin Solotruk (born 1970 in Bratislava, Slovakia) has published four books of verse in all and his poems have appeared in various anthologies (including New European Poets and Poesie in Europa). In 1997 his first collection Tiché vojny (Silent Wars) won him the Slovak Literary Fund Award. Solotruk is the poet of everyday things, of the conventional and unassuming. It is precisely in the microstructures that inaccessible truths are reflected that are hard to grasp. He has a doctorate in translation studies, and previously worked in advertising and television. He now teaches at the University of Bratislava. He translates poetry and plays by Samuel Beckett, Charles Simic, John Ashbery and Ted Hughes. For his translation of Ted Hughes’ Crow he won the 2007 prize for the best artistic translation.

Publications (selection):

Tiché vojny (Silent Wars) (Drewo a srd 1997)

Mletie (Wind-milling) (Drewo a srd 2001)

Lovestory: Agens apaciens (Ars Poetica 2007)

Ester Naomi Perquin (born 1980 in Utrecht, The Netherlands) grew up in the Dutch province of Zeeland. She worked as a prison warder to pay her way through university in Amsterdam. She has spent the last ten years living in Rotterdam and working as a writer, holding the office of City Scribe for 2012. She has received many awards for her work in the Netherlands in the past few years, including the 2007 Liegend Konijn Prize for the best first collection, the 2010 Anna Blaman Prize and the 2011 J.C. Bloem Poetry Prize. For one award, one of her poems was translated into the 23 official languages of the European Union.

Publications:

Servetten halfstok, (Oorschot B.V. 2007)

Namens de ander (Oorschot B.V. 2009)

Celinspecties (Oorschot B.V 2012)

Gabrielė Labanauskaitė (born 1980 in Klaipeda, Lithuania) is a writer and book critic and also works at the Lithuanian Music and Theatre Academy as a lecturer in Drama. Her plays The One that hurts the most, Circus and In-fucked have received many awards and have been performed in Finland, Sweden and the UK. Gabrielė Labanauskaitė’s art encompasses poetry, song and performance. She has released several CDs and DVDs with the collective A Vaspo, which transforms her texts into an atmospheric weave of sounds, combining electronic and experimental acoustic elements. Since 2006, Gabrielė Labanauskaitė has been organising Lithuania’s annual and only audio-visual poetry festival, the Tarpfest.

Publications:

Apelsinai aikštėj apgriuvusioj (Oranges on a Wretched Square) (2004)

Poetry, music and video collaboration Avaspo (Audiovisual Asp of Poetry) (2009)

Jean-Baptiste Cabaud (born 1970 in Chambéry, France) worked as a graphic artist for ten years before devoting himself fully to poetry. His first collection, Les Mécaniques, came out in 2008. He regularly performs his poems on stage, either alone or with his electronic band Saint Octobre. The group’s poetic music, together with the video art of Derviches Associés is used for short films that are shown at international poetry film festivals. In 2007 Jean-Baptiste Cabaud published a children’s book and he regularly gives writing workshops in schools and libraries.

Publications:

Le Petit Inconnu au Ballon (Éditions Le Baron Perché 2007)

Les Mécaniques (À Plus d’un Titre éditions 2008)

Le Coeur du Monde Extraordinaire (poetic writing workshop with 600 children from Saint-Étienne, France) (Saint-Étienne 2011)

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