My sound poetry dance project with Finnish Dancer/Choreographer Milla Koistinen is now featured prominently in the new “dance & poetry” issue of Finnish Online Magazine “NOKTURNO”

Here´s a link to the interview: https://nokturno.fi/poem/structure-or-chaos-a-little-bit-of-everything

and here to A Pile of Frames: https://nokturno.fi/poem/a-pile-of-frames

Editorial for the issue is here: https://nokturno.fi/en/news/movements-and-words-special-issue-on-dance-poetry

My talk with the amazing Georgian Avantgarde Poet & political activist Zurab Rtveliashvili at City Libary during Bookfair Frankfurt 2018 (German/Georgian). The talk was part of a series of presentations of new Georgian Poetry I curated for Georgian National Book Center.
Zurab is one of the artists that directly connect to the long forgotten futurist/dadaist tradition in Georgia.

From Oct. 15.th – Dec 15.2018 I was the resident artist in the small town Huenfeld in northern Hessia. I lived in the unique artist tower in the center. A lot of famous artists stayed here before me, but it seems no one ever stayed that long.

Huenfeld is a small town near Fulda, quite conservative & catholic. The biggest place is the the St. Bonifatius monastery of the Oblate-Brotherhood, a missonary order.

But it is also home to the Huenfeld Museum Modern Art in the old gasworks.  German-Polish Artist Juergen Blum-Kwiatkowski established a unique collectiion of minimal and concrete art. He also initiated the “Open Book” Project in which the city of Huenfeld itself serves as an “open Book” with mostly concrete & minimal poetry on more than 100 walls.

Another wonderful place is the Konrad-Zuse-Museum, which displays early computers build by computer pioneer Konrad-Zuse in the 1940s and 1950s. The old computers are wonderfully restored by Herbert Topat, the only  person in Germany who is able to bring them to life again. Most of the displayed computers can be operated.

A few kilometers outside of Huenfeld you can find remnants of the East German Wall & Point Alpha Memorial – the US Army Observation Point of the border during cold war. A second museum on the old border explains about the development of the wall and about the cold war in general. The whole area was called the Fulda Gap, a place where the Russians were expected to invade West-Germany. Since the US-Army knew it did not have enough capacity to stop a serious Russian invasion they developed small nukes they would throw in that case. The civilians were not to be warned, otherwise they might block the roads. Of course the nukes would also kill their own soldiers. These cynical strategies fired up the peace movement in the 1980s. Now the archives show that the Russians/East Germans had indeed very detailed plans for an invasion of West-Germany. Makes me shiver to see, how close to hot war we really have been.

Since 2015 there are also three refugee camps in and around Huenfeld. Together with Syrian/Venezoelan refugee Latifah Hamchou I was able to create a project I called “Huenfeld Open Stage International” where Immigrants & refugees could present poetry, music & dance.
I had been to some artist residencies abroad but this was my first artist residency in Germany. It was way more interesting than I thought. I learned a lot about local traditions but also about the many transitions this place has gone through. What we think of as “old traditions” is in some cases not that old at all. A lot of “traditions” were obviously invented in the 19th century, especially true for the brass music. Most of the “traditional” music & dances originate in Bohemia & Habsburgian culture of the 19th century.

The church culture isn´t local at all. The catholic church is a huge international company and most of the rites are the same all over the world. None of the local priests I met were born in Huenfeld. They come from all over Germany and from neighboring countries. They don´t speak and often don´t understand the local dialect.

I also learned about the (church) organ. I understand it is much more than just another “instrument”. With it´s immense possibilities of sound it´s a symphony orchestra played by one person. It looks more like a piece of architecture than an instrument. It is constantly rebuilt, it can be put up in another place or you can integrate parts of other organs. Organist Mathias Steinmacher invited me to have a look behind the scenes. I was just blown away by seeing how huge & complex this is. I was also surprised to hear that many church organ players love to improvise & to create crazy sounds that will shake the whole building.
In the end I created a chapbook with poems & a cd with fieldrecordings from Huenfeld. 

I will present two prominent Georgian poets each day during Frankfurt Book Fair 2018 at 13h:

10.10.-14.10.2018
Georgian Characters – Poetry Talk
Moderation: Dirk Hülstrunk
Language/ GER,ENGL,GEO
(Simultaneous translation)

Ehrengast-Pavillon
Main stage (Forum, Ebene 1) Buchmesse Frankfurt
Täglich 13 Uhr

10.10. \ Besik Kharanauli, Diana Anfimiadi
11.10 \ Paata Shamugia, Eka Kevanishvili
12.10 \ Shota Iatashvili, Zviad Ratiani
13.10 \ Shalva Bakuradze, Rati Amaglobeli
14.10 \ Lia Sturua, Giorgi Lobzhanidze

Across borders – Electropoetry and Spoken Word from Georgia
presented by Dirk Hülstrunk

Live music: Gogo Dzodzuashvili, Toresa Mossy,

authors: Rati Amaglobeli, Shalva Bakuradze, Erekle Deisadze, Zurab Rtveliashvili

Spoken Word meets electronic beats. Archaic rhymes meet club culture. Sound poetry meets performance and social protest. Rebellious up-to-date poetry that moves body and brain. The young Georgian poetry uses traditional meters and intonations as well as electronic beats and social messages.

Rati Amaglobeli is the shooting star of the Georgian poetry scene. Zurab Rtveliashvili is the most intense and provocative poet performer in Georgia. Shalva Bakuradze is obsessed with the sound and intonation of poetry, Erekle Deisadze is famous as musician as well as Spoken Word/Rap poet. Gogi Dzodzuashvili is a pioneer of the Georgian electronic music scene. The show will finish with an audiovisual live concert by author/musician Toresa Mossy.

Across borders – New Georgian poetry on the move
presented by Dirk Hülstrunk

Stadtbücherei Frankfurt (City Library)
Hasengasse 4, 60311 Frankfurt

Georgian Table-Songs by GeoTRAIN
& Georgian Wines & Snacks by Paata Bolatashvili

Authors:
Shota Iatashvili, Zviad Ratiani, Zurab Rtveliashvili, Eka Kevanashvili, Diana Anfimiadi

The new generation of Post-Sowjet Georgian poets cross many borders. They are political and playful, provocative, funny and emotional, radical and sophisticated. They are versed in newest international trends and keen too redefine old traditions. Poetry plays an important role in Georgia and reflects the massive changes in society after independence.

Five of the most renowned Georgian writers present their very different ways to search for an identity between east and west, old and new, individualism and society, spoken word performance, mythologies and social activistism.

GeoTrain are internationally renowed for their dynamic mixture of Jazz and Folk. “Table Songs” highlight the unique polyphonic Georgian singing, which is recognised as UNESCO World Heritage.

Thank you for sending me your personal word of the year for 2018. Some are completely new. Some have been used in some ways but offer great concepts for the future. Since mostl of these words came without explanation I tried to imagine (and research) what they could mean. You are welcome to add other interpretations.

Palitroche (Guadelupe)

beautiful nonsense word from a story in a mexican schoolbook from the 1980s. The girl Pita finds the word „palitroche“. What could it be? Noone seems to know. In the end she attributes the word to an insect.

I suppose the story is an spanish adaption of an episode of Astrid Lindgrens childrens book classic „Pippi Longstockings“ or „Pippi Calzaslargas“.

In Swedish and German versions Pippi finds the word „spunk“. In english versions it´s a „spink“. „Palitroche“ sounds undoubtly a lot nicer than „spunk“ & it still seems to have some popular live in Mexico as a funny name for products, online accounts, artist names etc.

German film adaption: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4sp2ob

Gnumpf (Hanne)

Probably a spontaneous uttering after a mishap or when something doesn´t work out. After mumbling „Gnumpf“ you go on and try again.

I would have never guessed that it really is name of a simple model airplane type.

See it fly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cpKVGX59FI

Teali (Dirk F.)

shortened variation of my own word „Lubbstuppelangsling“, leaving out the alliterations. Nice word. Sounds positive. Something like: how are you? I suggest to use it at breakfast time.

Maybe also an exclamation of amazement or respect. You really did this? Wow. Teali.

Toccata Palabra (Gerda)

Since J.S. Bach composed his famous „Toccata and fugue in D Minor“ we  know Toccata is not a special kind of pasta, but an italian word for instrumental (organ) music.

In combination with the spanish word “Palabra” for “word” it could stand for instrumental word music or just instrumental words. But why do we have to make a difference anyway? Is the mouth not an instrument? Is the word not music? In the future mouth and music will be ONE!

Hannebambelmuse (Axel)

Germans love to create compound word. Hanne is a  womens name. In Frankfurt dialect a Hannebambel is a male fool. When Hanne meets her Hannebambel they create a Bambelmuse, kind of a squashed grapefruit, sour as the famous Frankfurt “Apfelwein”, source of all inspiration.

Erfolgsotto (Andi)

The German word “Erfolg” means “success. Here it is combined with the name Otto that could stand for the “Otto Normalverbraucher” = the average consumer. When poverty grows it´s probably still a success to be an average consumer. Otto  will show off his average success by getting a Mops (pug dog). Concrete Poet Ernst Jandl wrote a funny & very successful poem about Ottos Mops. If you don´t believe that Germans can be successfully funny watch OTTO – our most successful Otto so far.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mP2nzphSnc

Lacherkrachermacher (Esther)

Controlled explosion of laughs, firecrackers of good humor in the hands of the Laughingmanager. Should be part of our new government.

Vazuthucudu (Anush)

South Indian princess with supernatural power. Maybe Vazuthucudu is the sister of prince Vazuthananga, the most tasty vegetarian boy in all the eastern hemisphere of the world. http://mariasmenu.com/vegetarian/vazhuthananga-theeyal-kerala-recipe/2

But Vazuthucudu is not easy to win. I am sure we can get some hints about her taste watching Tamil Vazhthukkal movies:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwiDwrX24uM

Otsukaresama お疲れ様。(Vladimir)

Helpfully Vladimir delivered his own interpretation:

a common Japanese phrase expressing respect for coming back (home), tired from work. A really nice phrase that should be introduced into other languages too. Being tired should always be respected.

Morphology (after Vladimir)

お (o) a prefix expressing respect

疲れ (tsukare) = being tired

様 (sama), highly respectful form of address used for kings or for the tired person.

Maybe the Otsukaresama Song helps to explain the concept (with english subtitles)

Bloschedd (Cliff)

Sounds like a Vienna style special coffee with just a drip of blood in it.

But maybe the same word could be used to end all discussions, especially on facebook. No more comments – bloschedd!

Kässimrang (Cliff)

Word of motivation. Come on, we survived all these years. We survived blood-coffee. We will survive 2018 as well.

Politricks (Mark)

Tricks with no end, multiple tricks. The word sounds like it has been around forever. Aren´t we all politricks? The best of us become politricians. Great entertainment.  Things are happening so fast, you don´t notice what is going on. I am sure that the German Merkel Government could use some good politricks to keep the ghosts of the far right away.

Kalsarikännit

I have to add this unique finnish word. It describes the feeling when you are going to get drunk home alone in your underwear – with no intention of going out. Since the world is getting nastier and more dangerous, it is probably a good idea to stay safe at home and get drunk. Progressive people like us don´t want to get judged by our outer appearance. Staying in your underwear is just fine for 2018

Jaromír Typlt & Dirk Hülstrunk Performance Ars Poetica 2016 from Ars Poetica on Vimeo.

For the black & white garden project of Datscha Radio I recorded my pieces “The white thing” & “black bloc” again (originally on my CD “Müüü”, 2013)