Matthias Fritsch

Foto: Leander Lenz

Matthias Fritsch was born in Greifswald in 1976. His film work deals with issues of authorship and ownership raised by the open methods of distribution in the Internet. In recent years, he has been increasingly involved with digital communities in video platforms and their role in the production of contemporary culture. Fritsch attracted a lot of attention with his video Kneecam No. 1, also known as Technoviking, which has had millions of hits and shares in the Internet and the digital career of which Fritsch has documented. Fritsch is also the author of many short and long films and media installations. In 2009 he founded Moving Silence, a platform for contemporary silent films, and since 2010 he has been the artistic director of the Moving Silence Festival in Athens.

Matthias Fritsch studied Media Art in Karlsruhe and Film, Fine Art and Curatorial Studies at Bard College, New York. He lives and works in Berlin.

Films (a selection):

Kneecam No. 1 (2000)
Odyssey 2003
(2006)
We, Technoviking
(2010)
I’ll be watching you
(2011)

Juliane Henrich

Juliane Henrich was born in Solingen in 1983 and as well as writing she devotes her time to making films and photography. Her work includes experimental documentaries and poetry films, including .spurnahme (Taking Traces), which was shown at the 2008 ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival, and in which Henrich combines film with photographs and lyric texts into the portrait of a place.

Juliane Henrich studied at the German Literature Institute in Leipzig and the University of Arts in Berlin and the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem. Her works have been shown at many festivals and exhibitions, including the Oberhausen International Short Film Festival and the Duisburg Film Festival. Henrich lives in Berlin.  

Films (a selection):

Spurnahme (2008)
Sämtliche Wunder
(2009)
Anything but my pictures (2011)
Tahrir im April
(2011)

Axel Krüger

Born in Haiger in 1978, Axel Krüger is a film maker, cutter and cameraman. He has been involved with the Poetic Encounters project from the very beginning and was not only responsible for the post-production of the poetry film Die unsichtbare Hand (The Invisible Hand) created with Israeli film-maker Joshua Simon for the first Poetic Encounters workshop in 2010, but he also made the ‘Making-Of’ film on the German-Polish Poetic Encounters in 2012. As well as works made for the Literaturwerkstatt Berlin, Axel Krüger has also made short film portraits of various city districts for berlinventar.tv.

Krüger studied Film Studies, Art History and English in Marburg and Mainz and lives in Berlin.

Films (a selection):

Die unsichtbare Hand (as cutter) (2010)
Quiproque
(director, camera and cutting) (1998)
Cashflow (camera) (2002)
In Ease
(camera) (2006)

Jakobe Mansztajn

Jakobe Mansztajn, born in Gdansk, Poland, in 1982, is a poet and blogger. His first book of poems Wiedeński high life (Vienna High Life) was written over a period of eight years in his home city and was published in 2009. It won the prestigious Silesius Prize in the First Collection of the Year category. In his blog Mansztajn reveals himself as an observer of the world, writing humorous short prose entries that show up the absurdities of everyday life.

Mansztajn organises the Poetry Slam event K3 Sopot and is the deputy editor-in-chief of the literary journal Korespondencja z ojcem (Correspondence with the Father). He lives in Gdansk.

Publication:

Vienna High Life (Portret 2009)

Blog:

http://jakobe.art.pl/

Tomasz Różycki

Foto: Howard Romero

Tomasz Różycki was born in Opole, Poland, in 1970, and had his international breakthrough in 2004 with his tragi-comic book-length poem ‘Twelve Stations’ about a trip into the past and the reunification of a family driven out of its Polish home during the Second World War, which gained him the Prize of the Kościelski Foundation in 2004, joining the ranks of such important poets as Sławomir Mrożek, Zbigniew Herbert and Adam Zagajewski.

Różycki is also a translator, mainly of French poetry, and his translations include Stéphane Mallarmé’s poem ‘Un coup de dés jamais n’abolira le hasard’ into Polish. Różycki studied Romance languages and literature in Crakow and now lives in his home city, where he teaches at the university.

Publications (a selection):

Vaterland (Stowarzyszenie im. Krzysztofa Kamila Baczyńskiego 1997)
Anima
(Wyd. Zielona Sowa 1999)
Chata umaita
(Lampa i Iskra Boża 2001)
Świat i antyświat
(Lampa i Iskra Boża 2003)
Kolonie
(Instytut Wydawniczy Znak  2007)
Księga obrotów
(Instytut Wydawniczy Znak 2010)
Bestiarium
(Znak 2012)

Publications in English:
The Forgotten Keys
(Zephyr Press 2007)

Agnieszka Wolny-Hamkało

Agnieszka Wolny-Hamkało was born in Wrocław, Poland, in 1979, and has published three anthologies of short stories and six books of poetry. She works as a television journalist and is a presenter for a cultural programme in which new book releases are presented. Wolny-Hamkało often turns into a performance artist when she is presenting her own work, using her whole body to give expression to her poems and enhancing her verses with a vibraphone. When she is not on the stage, she teaches Creative Writing and writes children’s books. Wolny-Hamkało studied Cultural Studies and is an acknowledged expert on multi-media art.

Publications (a selection):

Gospel (Biuro Literackie 2004)
Ani mi się śni
(Biuro Literackie 2006)
Spamy miłosne
(Wydawn a5 K.Krynicha 2007)
Nikon i Leica
(Wydawnictwo Wojewódzkiej Biblioteki Publicznej i Centrum Animacji Kultury 2010)