Eugen Gomringer
photo © gezett.de
* 20.01.1925, Cachuela Esperanza, Bolivia
lives in: Rehau, Germany
Eugen Gomringer (b.1925 in Cachuela Esperanza, Bolivia) is the son of a Bolivian mother and a Swiss father and grew up in Switzerland. He studied Art History and Economics and was a founder of Concrete Poetry. He was holding professorships in Düsseldorf, Bamberg, Zwickau and Schneeberg. In 2000 he founded the Institute for Constructive Art and Concrete Poetry in Rehau in Upper Franconia, where he lives. His extensive collection of concrete art and poetry formed the basis for the Museum for Concrete Art in Ingolstadt, which opened in 1992.
Karl Riha characterises Eugen Gomringer as “the father of the German post-war modern, not only with his programmatic statements but also with extraordinary poetic texts with have retained their power to engage to the present day, and beyond the present day. He is an inventor, in both the technical and the imaginative senses, who has permanently changed the language of literature.”
In 2011 Gomringer was awarded the Alice Salomon Poetics Prize for his work. The Alice Salomon University of Applied Sciences marked this occasion by placing his 1951 poem ‘ciudad (avenidas)’ on the south face of its building. In 2017 the students’ union objected to this poem being on the wall because it was degrading to women and demanded that it be removed immediately. This sparked off a wide-ranging and heated media debate.
On the occasion of his 95th birthday, the town of Rehau has named the square at the Kunsthaus, which was founded by Gomringer, after him. The Kunsthaus now has the address Eugen-Gomringer-Platz 1.
Gomringer is a member of the PEN Centre of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Bavarian German Work Federation, the Swiss Work Federation and Swiss Industrial Designers. He writes in German, Swiss-German, Spanish, French and English.
photo © gezett.de
lives in: Rehau, Germany
Eugen Gomringer (b.1925 in Cachuela Esperanza, Bolivia) is the son of a Bolivian mother and a Swiss father and grew up in Switzerland. He studied Art History and Economics and was a founder of Concrete Poetry. He was holding professorships in Düsseldorf, Bamberg, Zwickau and Schneeberg. In 2000 he founded the Institute for Constructive Art and Concrete Poetry in Rehau in Upper Franconia, where he lives. His extensive collection of concrete art and poetry formed the basis for the Museum for Concrete Art in Ingolstadt, which opened in 1992.
Karl Riha characterises Eugen Gomringer as “the father of the German post-war modern, not only with his programmatic statements but also with extraordinary poetic texts with have retained their power to engage to the present day, and beyond the present day. He is an inventor, in both the technical and the imaginative senses, who has permanently changed the language of literature.”
In 2011 Gomringer was awarded the Alice Salomon Poetics Prize for his work. The Alice Salomon University of Applied Sciences marked this occasion by placing his 1951 poem ‘ciudad (avenidas)’ on the south face of its building. In 2017 the students’ union objected to this poem being on the wall because it was degrading to women and demanded that it be removed immediately. This sparked off a wide-ranging and heated media debate.
On the occasion of his 95th birthday, the town of Rehau has named the square at the Kunsthaus, which was founded by Gomringer, after him. The Kunsthaus now has the address Eugen-Gomringer-Platz 1.
Gomringer is a member of the PEN Centre of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Bavarian German Work Federation, the Swiss Work Federation and Swiss Industrial Designers. He writes in German, Swiss-German, Spanish, French and English.
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