Suche
Mein Konto
Marble, mercury, fog: Schalansky explores the world in Frankfurt!
Judith Schalansky will give poetry lectures in Frankfurt from July 1st to 15th, 2025 on marble and human relationships.
Marble, mercury, fog: Schalansky explores the world in Frankfurt!
A heavy block of white marble found on the Greek island of Thassos inspired the writer Judith Schalansky. Even if marble is not her favorite material, she plans to discuss it in her lectures at the 2025 Frankfurt Poetry Lectures. The first meeting will take place today, July 1st, in the HZ 2 lecture hall center on the Westend campus, at exactly 6 p.m. Schalansky's title is "Marble, mercury, fog. What the world is made of". This takes the audience on an exciting journey to building materials and the relationships between them, which she uses in her thinking and writing FAZ reported.
The block of marble that Schalansky discovered weighs an impressive 27 tons, which is equivalent to half a sperm whale or several elephants. Nevertheless, the author explains that marble, as a human object, never returns to its place of origin. In her three lectures, which run until July 15, she will also touch on the dark history of the marble operation, including the deaths of prisoners of war in the quarry. Schalansky sees herself as an accumulator whose texts seem like deposits of knowledge and tries to highlight the differences between adding and chiseling away in art.
Event overview
In addition to the lectures, there will be an accompanying exhibition entitled “Changable Substances”. This will be on display at Dante 9 from July 1st to 16th, 2025. Artists such as Michael Kolod, Jan Schmidt and Vroni Schwegler will present works that deal with Schalansky's themes. On the occasion of the poetry lectures, there will also be a reading in the Literaturhaus Frankfurt on July 2nd, moderated by Prof. Roland Borgards. This starts at 7:30 p.m.
The events not only offer literary insights, but also include a scientific workshop entitled “Natural Studies between Literature and Science”, which will take place on July 15th from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the IG-farben-Haus. Registration takes place using the email address poetik@lingua.uni-frankfurt.de. All of these activities fall under the joint organization of the Foundation Guest Lectureship for Poetics, under the direction of Prof. Dr. Susanne Komfort-Hein, and are a real highlight of the Frankfurt cultural scene, as stated in another report idw online can be read.
Judith Schalansky, who started with the book “Fraktur mon Amour” in 2006, has since won many awards, including the Wilhelm Raabe Literature Prize and the Carl Améry Literature Prize 2023. Her book series “Naturkunde”, which she has been publishing since 2013, reflects her interest in the connection between nature and art. It promises to be an exciting time for literature enthusiasts in Frankfurt!