Enigma: Reading Ingeborg Bachmann

17.10.2023 / 19:00 – 22:00

Readings by Quinn Latimer, Snejanka Mihaylova, Mayra A. Rodríguez Castro, Tanasgol Sabbagh, Nhã Thuyên, and Eugene Yiu Nam Cheung. Further Contributions by Jamieson Webster & Marcus Coelen. Composition by Fabian Saul.

Ingeborg Bachmann arrived in West Berlin in the Spring of 1963 as one of the first fellows of the then newly founded Artist-in-Residency Program. For over a decade, the city had been isolated by the grip of the Cold War. Her stay lasted until the end of 1965. This period saw the evolution of forthcoming pieces by the author, carried merely in sheets and early drafts at the time. Surrounding her visit to Berlin, Bachmann renounced poetry and devoted herself to short stories, essays, radio dramas, and the eminent trilogy Todesarten Projekt. Despite her attention to prose, she continued to compose the poem Enigma (1964), which reappeared persistently in later collections.

Ingeborg Bachmann perfected Enigma throughout the years. The opening line of the poem predicted an utter catastrophe: Nothing more will come. Yet, her revisions proved a desire for continuance. The poet confronted various faces of optimism and defeat as versions proliferated. Perhaps her attempts mirrored waves of historical violence, to say that our catastrophes do not occur once. They are recurrent, present, and refracted. In her stanzas, Bachman bends the reader until they listen for hope, which is to be found only in music. 

To celebrate the life and work of the author on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of her death, Enigma: Reading Ingeborg Bachmann gathers writers and artists in response to a single poem.

Invited by Mayra A. Rodríguez Castro, Fabian Saul and Mathias Zeiske

The event launches the new series Solitärinnen, which will revisit and celebrate the work of the few female writers who joined the early years of the Artists-in-Berlin Program. Authors include, Ingeborg Bachmann, Wong May, Friederike Mayröcker, Anne Moody, and Irena Vrkljan. It is part of the collaborative project If the Berlin Wind Blows My Flag. Art and Internationalism before the Fall of the Berlin Wall.

Readings in English, German and Vietnamese

Free admission

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