renshi.eu [GR-SI-BE-DE-DK-BG-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-SI-BE-DE-DK-BG-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)

Gregor Podlogar (born 1974 in Ljubljana, Slovenia) studied philosophy and has published two books of verse to date. In 2003 he created an experimental book about New York City with a painter and a poet. Gregor Podlogar lives in his birthplace, Ljubljana, presents cultural broadcasts on the radio and occasionally performs as a DJ. He also translates contemporary American poetry (C. Hawkey, L. Solomon, P. Killebrew, A. Berrigan) and is the editor of the Slovenian edition of lyrikline.org.

Publications:

Naselitve (States) (Aleph Press 1997)

Vrtoglavica zanosa (Joy in Vertigo) (Aleph Press 2002)

Milijon sekund blize (A Million Seconds closer) (Sherpa Press 2006)

Vesela nova ušesa (Happy New Ears) (Sherpa Press 2010)

Gwenaëlle Stubbe (born 1972 in Brussels, Belgium) is a poet and performer. She takes part in various radio programmes and does readings in both French and Flemish. Her poems are like little stories starting in day-to-day things and quickly drifting into the surreal. She describes her own texts, which are often about men, as “a small revenge on one half of humanity”. On stage she is a lively performer whose voice, poise and movements accentuate the music of her language. Gwenaëlle Stubbe has lived in France since 2002.

Publications:

Un surpent de fumée (éditions la Pierre d’Alun 1999)

Le héros et sa créature (le Cormier 2002)

Salut salut Marxus (éditions Al Dante 2006)

Ma Tante Sidonie (POL 2010)

Poet Katharina Schultens (born 1980 in Kirchen, Germany) published her second collection of poetry, gierstabil, in 2011. For her first collection, Aufbrüche (2004) she won the 2005 Martha Saalfeld promotion prize, with the jury praising her for developing “impressively worked poems where ideas meet reined-in impressionistic power in great lightness and certainty of form”. Other awards include the 2007 Georg K. Glaser promotion prize and the promotion prize for the Art Prize of the State of Rhineland Palatinate in 2009. Since 2006, Katharina Schultens has been working as a research assistant at the Humboldt University in Berlin, having previously studied Cultural Studies in Hildesheim, St. Louis and Bologna.

Publications:

Aufbrüche (Rhein-Mosel-Verlag 2004)

gierstabil (Luxbooks Verlag 2011)

Olga Ravn (born 1986 in Kopenhagen, Denmark) lives in Kopenhagen where she works as a poet and literary critic. Her first collection, the highly-praised Jeg æder mig selv som lyng (I devour myself like heather) was published in early 2012. This collection is primarily concerned with growing up, with the physical feelings involved, the expectations of others around one, with urgent love, sex and forbidden things. These topics are dealt with raw openness and nevertheless sensitivity in carefully constructed forms. Olga Ravn also works as an illustrator.

Publications:

Jeg æder mig selv som lyng (Gyldendal 2012)

http://olga-ravn.blogspot.de/

Georgi Gospodinov (born 1968 in Yambol, Bulgaria) is one of the most translated Bulgarian writers in the post-1989 period. He lives and works in Sofia, writing a regular column for the Bulgarian daily newspaper Dnevnik and editing a literary journal. He has published four volumes of verse and won various literary prizes in Bulgaria. A selection of his poems has been published in German translation in Kleines morgendliches Verbrechen. Gospodinov became internationally known in 1999 primarily for his idiosyncratic, experimental novel Estestven roman (Natural Novel), which has been translated English and German. In 2008 and 2009 Gospodinov was a guest writer in the DAAD Artists in Berlin programme. As well as writing poetry and prose, he is also a successful scriptwiter and playwright.

Publications (selection):

Лапидариум (Lapidarium) (Modus Stojanov 1992)

Чарешата на един народ/Čerešata na edin narod (The Cherry Tree of a People) (Svobodno poetichesko obshtestvo 1996)

Естествен роман/ Estestven roman (Natural Novel) (Izd. Kasta Zanet-45 1999)

И други истории/I drugi istorii (And other Stories) (Izd. Kasta Zanet-45 2001)

Писма до Гаустин/Pisma do Gaustin (Letters to Gaustin) (Izd. Kasta Zanet-45 2003)

Балади и разпади/Baladi i razpadi (Ballads and Maladies) (Izd. Kasta Zanet-45 2007)

Remember poem / Add to List

Poem already on my list

If you want to remember or list a poem, become a community member.

Login/Register now

Random poem

PUSH!