Imagine: if around a hundred authors originating from all European countries were able to get together to undertake a bus tour across the continent, simultaneously overcoming the boundaries and borders that others are striving to rebuild, as well as creating a text together, then that would surely be a start.
At a time when division and separatism are being preached all around us and people are starting to live in fear of one another, it becomes even more important that we come together to celebrate and uphold the freedom and solidarity that the arts can offer.
CROWD shows us that the world can be different, and that such a world does not merely exist as a figment of the imagination, but that it can be made a reality that we can all be a part of.
Literature knows no boundaries!
LEG 2, 22.05-12.06.2016: Germany, Poland, Czech Republic
https://crowdlitbus.eu/eu.crowd-literature/
https://exwtico.wordpress.com/2016/05/28/crowd-omnibus-reading-tour-2016/
Participants:
JK Ihalainen (FI) | Harri Hertell (FI) | Katariina Vuorinen (FI) | Olga Pek (CZ) | Pambos Kouzalis (CY) | Maria Siakalli (CY) | Gür Genc (CY) | Ilse Kilic (AT) | Thomas Antonic (AT) | Maria Cecilia Barbetta (DE) | Artur Becker (DE) | Elias Knörr (IS) | Judith Keller (CH) | Anja Golob (SI) | Ian de Toffoli (LU) | Alen Meskovic (DK) | Rufus Mufasa (UK) | Tsvetanka Elenkova (BG) | Kätlin Kaldmaa (EE) | Vladimir Durisic (ME) | Birger Emanuelsen (NO) | Roland Reichen (CH) | Nadia Mifsud (MT) | Johannes Schrettle (AT)
Pambos Kouzalis
Roland Reichen
Rufus Mufasa
Antonic Ratia
Tsvetanka Elenkova
Vladimir Đurišić
Nadia Mifsud (Photo by Virginia Monteforte)
Alen Meskovic (Photo by Isak Hoffmeyer)
Birger Emanuelsen (Photo by Andre Løyning)
Amanda DeMarco
Anja Golob (Photo by Grace Schwindt)
Johannes Schrettle
Artur Becker
Elías Knörr (Photo by Angela Rawlings)
Harri Hertell (Photo by Vitali Gusatinsky)
Gür Genç
Ian De Toffoli (Photo by Pitt Simon)
Ilse Kilic
Judith Keller (Photo by Carlos Hidalgo)
Jyrki K Ihalainen (Photo by Teppo S Moilanen)
Katariina Vuorinen (Photo by Marko Niemi)
Kätlin Kaldmaa (Photo by Toomas Volmer)
Maria Siakalli
María Cecilia Barbetta (Photo by Alberto Novelli)
Olga Pek (Photo by Ondrej Lipar)
Berlin’s Voice: Opening Night
Lettrétage, Berlin – 26 May 2016
Participants:
J. K. Ihalainen
Johannes Schrettle
Olga Pek
Nadia Mifsud
Elias Knörr
Amanda DeMarco
Judith Keller
Maria Cecilia Barbetta
Pambos Kouzalis
Hosts: Tom Bresemann, Katharina Deloglu and Linde Nadiani.
Lettrétage kicked off BERLIN’S VOICE: European Days of Literature in Berlin 2016 with an evening of multilingual readings from writers on the OMNIBUS tour as well as others from Berlin.
BERLIN’S VOICE: European Days of Literature in Berlin 2016
(with events in Marzahn, Kreuzberg, Spandau, Tempelhof, Mitte, Schöneberg and elsewhere)
A festival of the European network CROWD (CReating Other Ways of Dissemination), as a part of the Europe-wide OMNIBUS Reading Tour (100 Authors, 12 Weeks, 15 Countries).
Eight authors from all over Europe will be travelling to Berlin and staying there from the 26th to the 30th of May, reading all over the city and engaging with the Berlin audience.
The aim of the festival is to show that Literature is no heady intellectual area of art as more and more authors all across Europe take from the reality of everyday life when creating their texts. It is at a time such as the present, when new crises are constantly springing up in European politics, that cultural impulses should exist in society, promoting discourse, exchange and understanding. The festival will therefore seek to emphasise both the relevancy of the everyday reality lived by the authors on the one hand, as well as that of the audience present in different parts of Berlin on the other.
https://crowdlitbus.eu/eu.crowd-literature/#/event/16971
Berlin’s Voice: Kulturhochhaus Marzahn – Literary District Walk and Reading in Public Space
Wittenberger Str. 85 – 27 May 2016
Participants:
J. K. Ihalainen
Olga Pek
Nadia Mifsud
In cooperation with KULTURHOCHHAUS MARZAHN, we explored the Marzahn locality and transformed public spaces into temporary literary landscapes.
Our tour began on Friday, 27th May 2016 at 11am from the Ahrensfelde S-Bahnhof station.
Literary activists and guests were led by Torsten Preußing, a local tour guide well acquainted with the area and author of the travel guide ‘Im Zirkel des Marzahner Matterhorns‘ (‘In the circle of Marzahn’s Matterhorn’) to the Berlin Chekhov Theatre, where they were read to by J. K. Ihalainen.
Around 11:45 the group went over to the HEINRICH VON KLEIST BIBLIOTHEK BERLIN to enjoy our second lyrical stop with the author Olga Pek.
From there, it was just a stone’s throw away to the KULTURHOCHHAUS MARZAHN where they heard Nadia Mifsud perform her poetry. While indulging in various artistic and culinary tastes and pleasures, we enjoyed engaging in cultural exchage with one another.
https://crowdlitbus.eu/eu.crowd-literature/#/event/21600
Berlin’s Voice: Reading and Discussion in Cooperation with EUNIC Berlin
Finnland Institut – 27 May 2016
Participants:
Olga Pek
Nadia Mifsud
J. K. Ihalainen
Host: Tom Bresemann
An evening of readings and discussion with authors J. K. Ihalainen (FI), Olga Pek (CZ) and Nadia Mifsud (MT). There was also the opportunity to taste Czech beer and Maltese sparkling wine, kindly offered by the Tschechisches Zentrum Berlin.
The event was hosted in cooperation with EUNIC Berlin (Finnland-Institut, Tschechishes Zentrum Berlin, the Embassy of Malta in Berlin).
https://crowdlitbus.eu/eu.crowd-literature/#/event/39976
https://finnland-institut.de/events/jyrki-k-ihalainen-olga-pek-nadia-mifsud/
https://www.czechlit.cz/en/de_post/lesung-und-gesprach-jyrki-k-ihalainen-olga-pek-nadia-mifsud/
Berlin’s Voice: Creative Writing Workshops for Residents with Sozial-Kulturelle Netzwerke Casa e.V.
Sozial-Kulturelle Netzwerke Casa e.V. – 28 May 2016
Participants:
Johannes Schrettle
J. K. Ihalainen
Nadia Mifsud
As part of ‘European Neighbours’ Day’, three OMNIBUS authors created a multilingual collective text together with local residents. The text(s) were then performed in a short reading at the end of the creative writing workshop.
This event was hosted in cooperation with Sozial-Kulturelle Netzwerke Casa e.V.
https://crowdlitbus.eu/eu.crowd-literature/#/event/10926
one is a crowd: nadia mifsud
Literature as a European mother tongue: In our series “One is a CROWD”, we introduce you to authors from all over Europe who will be involved in the CROWD omnibus reading tour, taking place from May to July 2016, featuring 100 authors who will be travelling through 15 European countries. We asked them questions about text production, reception and mediation. In case you were wondering what a literary activist from Malta looks like, meet Nadia Mifsud!
by Luise Behr
Do you see yourself as an author? Are you the originator and main authority of your text? If not, who is, if anyone at all?
Yes, sometimes I do see myself as an author. At other times, however, I feel more like an ‘interpreter’, so to speak. There are so many things that can act as triggers to the writing process – a sound, a word, a face, a landscape, a painting, a piece of music, an architectural detail… So in a way, no, I am not the originator – I am the one who transcribes those details, emotions, impressions, perceptions into words. Once the writing process is finished, the text is handed over to the audience, so the authority shifts too. I have always been fascinated by the way different artists deal with the same subject matter and by the different reactions of people to a particular piece of work.
Reading is writing is reading is writing … – why, and if so, how?
I can think of two answers to this question. First, this correlation between reading and writing is what constitutes a literary tradition. Authors are influenced by the writings of other authors and respond to them directly or indirectly; by so doing, they in turn nourish the imagination of future generations. On a more personal level, everything that I have ever read feeds into my writing, yes. The two are so intimately linked that I sometimes feel ‘invaded’ if I am reading a work that I feel particularly drawn to. When that happens, I need to distance myself from that author in order to do any serious writing. Once I have finished a writing project, I tend to go back to devouring every book that comes my way.
What is your favorite literary spot in Malta?
I would like to talk about a favorite literary event (and not venue) that takes place every year at the end of August. This is the Malta Mediterranean Literature Festival (MMLF), organized by Inizjamed in collaboration with Literature Across Frontiers and other local and international entities. This festival brings together writers from Malta, the Mediterranean and beyond to celebrate literature and discuss some of the most significant issues of our time. The MMLF, now running into its 11th edition, will be held at Fort St. Elmo in Valletta from August 25 to August 27. Check out this year’s fantastic line-up on Inizjamed’s facebook page or at inizjamed.org.
Photo by Virginia Monteforte.
This interview was first published on the CROWD website on 26 April 2016.
