citybooks Graz

EU-Kulturprojekt 2011-2013

Ein Projekt unter Einbeziehung von Literatur, bildender Kunst und Film
city books Graz wird im Jahr 2011/ 2012 in Graz realisiert

next – Verein für zeitgenössische Kunst wurde von DeBuren als Co-Partner zum EU-Kulturprojekt „city books“ eingeladen. city books ist ein Projekt, an dem ausgewählte europäische Städte teilnehmen und von jeweils 5 LiteratInnen, einer/einem Photographin/Photographen und einem Filmteam in city-one-minutes portraitiert werden. Die Ergebnisse werden als Pod Casts von DeBuren in drei Sprachen im Internet präsentiert. Darüber hinaus werden die Ergebnisse in den jeweiligen Städten der Öffentlichkeit vorgestellt.

city books Graz wird am 26. September 2011 im Literaturhaus Graz der Öffentlichkeit vorgestellt.

The culture programme (2007-2013) of the European Commission has granted the Flemish-Dutch House deBuren € 200.000,- for the project citybooks. citybooks is the successor of the successful Radio Books. Together with European partners, deBuren invites authors, photographers and video artists for a residence in an interesting, less evident city. They translate their intimate encounter with this European city in unique city portraits. Stories, photographs and video’s find each other in a multimedia environment on www.city-books.eu.

Successor of the Radio Books

Following the success of the Radio Books, which were downloaded or streamed a million times for free via www.radiobooks.eu, deBuren presents a large, predominantly literary project: citybooks. Abdelkader Benali, Bernard Dewulf, Milena Michiko Flašar, Stefan Hertmans, Simone Lenaerts, Frank Westerman, Joost Zwagerman and many others write citybooks.

European project

citybooks focuses on cities that are not evident but nonetheless interesting. In the early stages of this project deBuren made city portraits of Ostend, Grahamstown and Utrecht. With the support of the European Commission, the project is getting European wings as well: starting in the Summer of 2011 we present new stories, poems, photographs and video’s together with partners in Charleroi, Chartres, Graz, Lublin, Sheffield and Skopje. Our aim is to build a sustainable network of ‘United Cities of Europe’, where European citizens can actively discover their (city)culture.

Multimedia, multilingual

A photographer, a video artist and five Flemish, Dutch and local authors will take up a residence in every city. The photographer makes 24 photographs, the video artist makes 24 video’s (City One Minutes) and the authors write a citybook: a story or series of poems in which the city takes a central role. These citybooks are available for free as web text, podcast and e-book in Dutch, French, English and in the local language of the city.

Director Dorian van der Brempt: “citybooks is an invitation to travel without moving. You pick the place and the time when you want to read or listen to the city. To grow more fond of Europe, we must get to know its cities better. deBuren hopes that the acquaintance with interesting but sometimes unfamiliar European cities can contribute to the developing European identity.”

Have a nice journey, discover the city!

Participants in Graz

Milena Michiko Flašar (St. Pölten, 1980) studied comparative literature, Germanic and Roman languages at the University of Vienna, and taught German to non-native speakers. After several successful publications in a variety of literary magazines, she made her debut in 2008 with the collection Ich bin (I am). This volume includes three short stories about love and parting. The short story Okaasan – Meine unbekannte Mutter (Okaasan – My unfamiliar Mother) appeared in 2010, telling the story of her dying demented mother. She has received several prizes and scholarships for her work. Meanwhile she has started writing full-time.
www.milenaflasar.com

Simone Lenaerts (Antwerpen, 1947) used to be a school teacher and is closely involved in the exhibitions of her husband, Jan Vanriet. For the BBL galery (Antwerp) she organized several exhibitions with works by Breyten Breytenbach, E.L.T.Mesens, René Magritte, Marcel Broothaers, Peter Klasen, Oswaldo Romberg, Denis de Rudder. In collaboration with Gerdi Esch and Agnes Goyvaerts, she published Mode in de lage landen, België (Fashion in the low countries, Belgium). She translated the play ‘Teibele en haar Demon’ (‘Teibele and her Demon’) and wrote travel stories about Harlem (NY) and the Provence for the Belgian newspaper De Morgen. Her debut novel, Zeewater is zout, zeggen ze (Sea water is salt, they say) appeared in 2008 and received the Debut Prize Flanders. In October 2009 her second novel was published.
simone@simonelenaerts.be

Onno Kosters (1962) published prose, poetry and essays, and translations of Simon Armitage, Samuel Beckett, Weldon Kees and Wallace Stevens in De Brakke Hond, De Gids, De Revisor, Dietsche Warande en Belfort, Parmentier, Poëziekrant and Raster. His translation of Samuel Beckett’s novel Watt was published in 2006 and was awarded with the Filter Translation Prize 2007. He made his debut with Callahan en andere gedaanten (Callahan and Other Appearances) in 2004. De grote verdwijntruc (The Big Disappearing Act) appeared in May 2007. In collaboration with the Canadian photographer Dick Groot, he published the photo- and poetry collection Anatomie van het slik (An Anatomy of Silt), which was also translated into English. He performs at different festivals like ‘Winternachten’ and ‘Dichters in de Prinsentuin’.
O.R.Kosters@uu.nl

Andrea Stift, born 1976 in Southern Styria (Austria), studied Applied Linguistics and German Philology and lives now in Graz. She writes prose and poetry, her stories were published in manuskripte, Kolik and several Austrian newspapers. She won some prizes and awards like the manuskripte-Literaturförderungspreis and the Startstipendium 2009 and was invitated to the Open Mike in Berlin and the Festival Internacional de Poesía Granada in Nicaragua. Her first book, called “Reben” (a story about her great-grandmother), was published in 2007, her second book, a novel called “Klimmen. Erzählung einer WG” (about students living together sharing a flat), was published in 2008. Since 2009 Andrea Stift works for the Austrian literary magazine manuskripte. Blog and further information:
www.andreastift.at

Werner Schandor, writer & photographer, born 1967 in Fürstenfeld, eastern Styria, studied German literature and educational sciences in Graz. Lived in Glasgow, UK, and Budapest, Hungary, for a while. Now lives and works in Graz, Austria. Editor of the literature feuilleton magazine „schreibkraft“. Published three novels, a little book of poems, experimental prose, a literature comic book (with a CD of music by Austrian independent bands) and a travel guide of southern Styria so far. In autumn 2011 a new collection of short stories, „Ruby lebt“ („Ruby lives“), will be published.
schandor@mur.at

Lea Titz was born 1981 in Graz, Austria; in 2000/2001 she visited the Academy of Applied Photography (Graz) and was trained as a photographer in Graz and Rosenheim (Germany); from 2003 to 2009 studies at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna (Visual and Media Arts, Professor Gabriele Rothemann); since 2003 she works in the field of architecture-photography; 2006 founding member of „fullframe“, a festival for art- and avantgardefilm in Vienna; Lea Titz lives as an artist using photography, video and installation in Vienna. lea_titz@yahoo.de

citybooks – City-One-Minutes
In Anlehnung an 24 Stunden in einer Stadt entstehen 24 einminütige Videofilme, die eine weitere künstlerische Ebene über das Leben der Stadt öffnen. An den City-One-Minutes arbeiten Franck Perrot (FR), Klaus Pamminger (A), Lotte Schreiber (A), XXkunstkabel (A), Lea Titz (A) und Josip Zanki/Martina Mezak (HR) sowie der Komponist Gerhard Nierhaus (A).
Die VideokünstlerInnen entwickeln an konzeptuellen Rahmenbedingungen ihre Ideen und Konzepte: zeitgenössische künstlerische Objekte und Ereignisse der Stadt sind ebenso Impulsgeber wie soziokulturelle Fragestellungen und Architektur. Sie arbeiten zur speziellen Situation der Stadt zwischen Tradition und Avantgarde, zum Neuen im Alten, zum Offenen im Zugesperrten. Die Filmmusik ist ein verbindendes Element, um die 24 einminütigen Videos als einen gesamten Film ebenso erleben zu können. Die Präsentation der Filme wird im Jahre 2012 sein.

Cooperations in Graz: Literaturhaus Graz, Kulturvermittlung Steiermark, Diagonale and Creative Industries Styria