Für die Beweglichkeit. Poetry Days, Linz 2009
15th – 18th April 2009
Linz’s biennial poetry festival “Für die Beweglichkeit” (For Agility) will be held for the third time in 2009. Curator Christian Steinbacher, himself a highly regarded author who makes his home in Linz, applies a wide-open conception of poetry to the task of orchestrating the festival’s program: poiesis in its original sense as the sensory and sensual process of generating, forming and getting across ideas.This festival held under the aegis of the MAERZ artists’ association not only transcends the boundaries between different artistic presentation forms—for instance, concert, speech and exhibition; it also includes among its venues such diverse settings as MAERZ’s own premises, the StifterHaus, the corporate campus of HMH GmbH, and the City of Linz’s Botanical Garden.
In addition to the title “Für die Beweglichkeit” understood as a call to action and an overarching theme, each biennial festival is held under a specific motto. In 2009, in conjunction with an accompanying memorial exhibition dedicated to poet and essayist Georg Jappe (1939–2007), it will be “Notices, Margins, Nomads.”
This third installment of the festival being staged in cooperation with Linz 2009 European Capital of Culture will also particularly focus on three countries: France, Switzerland and Hungary.
Participants will include Jean-Pierre Balpe (Paris), Péter Esterházy (Budapest), Jürg Laederach (Basel), Michèle Métail (Southern France), Yoko Tawada (Japan), Ottó Tolnai (Vojvodina), Ann Cotten, Tamás Jónás and Anja Utler.
The aim of these days of poetry configured in accordance with an overarching structure is twofold: to impart a relevant supra-regional impetus to current issues related to poetry, and to allow audiences in Linz to experience a wide variety of poetic artworks in many different formats and settings.
The memorial exhibition for Georg Jappe being staged in conjunction with the poetry festival will run April 1-19, 2009 in the StifterHaus.
Locations // StifterHaus, Artists’ Association MAERZ, Botanical Garden, HMH-Engineering-Consulting-Trading GmbH
Idea / Concept // Christian Steinbacher
Organizers // MAERZ Artists’ Association, StifterHaus, Linz09
Featured Guests // Peter Ablinger, Jean-Pierre Balpe, blablabor, Péter Esterházy, Ilse Garnier, Jürg Laederach, Michèle Métail, Louis Roquin, Yôko Tawada, Ottó Tolnai et al.
Christian Steinbacher, born in 1960 in Ried, Austria, has lived in Linz since 1984. He is an author, curator, publisher and communicator/facilitator. From 1994 to 2000, he was editor and publisher of “Blattwerk.” Since the 1980s, he has also conceived and organized literary events including: anagramm 88, Ottensheim/Linz 1988; Drehpunkte zwischen Poesie und Poetologie heute, jointly with Thomas Eder, Alte Schmiede Wien 1999-2000; since 1990, the ongoing literature series linzer notate at MAERZ in Linz; and the biennial poetry festival Für die Beweglichkeit, Linz 2005, 2007, 2009. Steinbacher writes poetry, poetic prose, essays and radio plays (Die Gondelfahrer, ORF 2002) and has also (particularly in the ‘90s) staged text installations as well as spoken word performances of works of poésie sonore (sound poetry). Since 1988, his poems have been published by edition neue texte, herbstpresse, edition ch and, most recently, Haymon-Verlag in Innsbruck (Die Treffsicherheit des Lamas, Prosa, 2004; Zwirbeln, was es hält, Gedichte, 2006).
