In the heart of the heart of a century
Etel Adnan would have been 100 years old on 24 February 2025. The Beirut-born poet, painter, journalist and philosopher spent her life in Lebanon, France, and California – finding her home in literature and art. Her works reflects a grand, vibrant exchange between the Arabic and Western world, it combines different art forms, media, languages, and cultures. Together with literary translator and co-editor of the Adnan anthology “Sturm ohne Wind”, Klaudia Ruschkowski, we we would like to invite you to a celebration of this wonderful artist. We listen to Etel Adnan’s texts together, reading from them, let her be present in short films, talking about her and her works. We invite you all: Bring your favourite Etel Adnan text! There will also be Lebanese street food and music.
4 pm “It is a good day”
Welcome, Lecture, Video
With Rasha Khayat, Klaudia Ruschkowski, Kathrin Tiedemann, and others
5 pm “Living in war times”
Introduction, Lecture, Talk
With Rasha Khayat, Hanna Mittelstädt, Klaudia Ruschkowski, Kathrin Tiedemann, Stephanie Widholm (Eine Welt Forum, Düsseldorf), Nizar Ebrahim and others
6 pm “25 FFT Years – How did that go again? Sitt Marie-Rose”
Review, Video, Lecture, Talk
With Maren Jungclaus and Meral Ziegler (Literaturbüro NRW), Kathrin Tiedemann, and others
7 pm “Writing and painting as a purpose in life”
Lecture, Video, Performance
With Sonja Klempert, Hanna Mittelstädt, Julia Zinnbauer and others
8 pm “The price of love we refuse to pay”
Video, Lecture
With Kathrin Tiedemann, Nizar Ebrahim and others
Klaudia Ruschkowski, born in Dortmund in 1959, is a writer, dramaturge, editor, curator and literary translator. She worked at several German theatres and co-founded the Europäisches Kulturzentrum (European Culture Centre) in 1991, acting as its director until 1997. In the same year, she met Etel Adnan, whose works she has been translating into German since, embarking on many literary and artistic adventures with her. From 1999 until 2010, she conceptualised many workshops for directors, actors, dramaturges, visual artists, and composers for the International Heiner Müller Society, Berlin, and served as the co-editor on three research volumes on Heiner Müller’s theatre pieces. She has been realising art and literature projects since 2000, brings people and topics together, translates literature from Italian and English, authors audio plays and essays. Her novel “Rot, sagte er” was published in 2021.