SAVE THE DATE: Sergio Raimondi gives the Berlin Poetry Lecture At the 20th poesiefestival berlin he will be speaking about the excessiveness of capitalism

29.04.2019

Sunday | 16 June 2019 | 7.30 pm

2019 Berlin Poetry Lecture: Sergio Raimondi. Problems with Writing an Ode to the Pacific Ocean

Akademie der Künste, Hanseatenweg 10, 10557 Berlin | Kl. Parkett/Small Stage | € 6/4


The Argentinian poet Sergio Raimondi is giving this year’s Berlin Poetry Lecture in the Akademie der Künste on 16 June as part of the 20th poesiefestival berlin. Raimondi has given his lecture the title: Problems with Writing an Ode to the Pacific Ocean.

Localising the actual ocean is more difficult, since all known depictions show it banished to the edge of this completely rectangular world and split into two halves. How can it be grasped in its entirety?

In his lecture, he discusses Adorno’s call for a poetry that is commensurate with capitalism. Sergio Raimondi rejects this call as being boundless, since capitalism itself is boundless, he says, by its very nature and with all its global strategies. Does the poet have to operate with maps and statistics in order to give an appropriate poetic response? Answering this question shows clearly that the poet has an equally boundless advantage. Capitalism is never up to the level of poetry.

Problems with Writing an Ode to the Pacific Ocean is being published for the event by Wallstein Verlag (€ 13.90) in Spanish and German (translated by Timo Berger). The lecture is being given in Spanish, with a German translation.

The Berlin Poetry Lecture has been given annually at the poesiefestival berlin since 2016. Previous speakers have been Oswald Egger, John Burnside and Elke Erb.

Sergio Raimondi (born in 1968 in Bahia Blanca, Argentina) has been seen as a reviver of Argentinian poetry since the publication of his first volume, Poesía civil, in 2001 (translated into German as Zivilpoesie, Reinecke & Voß 2017, by Timo Berger). The poet Arturo Carrera praised Poesía civil for its absolute contact with reality, cleansing the language of our age. Raimondi’s texts are always political, in an empathetic sense. For nearly two decades Raimondi has been working on a second volume, an enormous, encyclopaedic project that is nearing completion and will be entitled For an Annotated Dictionary. A selection appeared in German translation in 2012 from Berenberg Verlag under the title Für ein kommentiertes Wörterbuch. In 2018 Sergio Raimondi was a fellow of the Artists in Berlin Programme of the DAAD.

The 20th poesiefestival berlin is organised by the Haus für Poesie and is taking place from 14 to 20 June 2019 in the Akademie der Künste in Hanseatenweg. With the theme Finally Time for Language, the festival presents international poetry in all its many and various forms and in conjunction with art, theatre, performance, music, film and digital media.

The 2019 Berlin Poetry Lecture: Sergio Raimondi – Problems with Writing an Ode to the Pacific Ocean is made possible by the kind assistance of the German Foreign Ministry and the Artists in Berlin Programme of the DAAD.

The 20th poesiefestival berlin is a project of the Haus für Poesie in co-operation with the Akademie der Künste. It is funded by the Capital City Cultural Fund (Hauptstadtkulturfonds) and the German Foreign Ministry, with the kind support of the Maritim proArte Hotel Berlin. It is presented by taz, BÜCHERmagazin, tip, ASK HELMUT and Deutschlandfunk Kultur.

 

14 – 20 June 2019

20th poesiefestival berlin: Finally Time For Language

Akademie der Künste

Hanseatenweg 10

10557 Berlin


 

Press photos for download:

https://www.haus-fuer-poesie.org/en/press/press-photos/

 

Accreditation:

presse@haus-fuer-poesie.org

 

For enquiries and information:

Haus für Poesie

Silvia Halfter

Head of Media and Public Relations

Tel: 030. 48 52 45 24

Email: presse@haus-fuer-poesie.org