Adam Zagajewski – författare

One of the most vibrant voices of our time, Adam Zagajewski is a modern master of the poetic form. His clear-eyed verse acknowledges atrocities past and present, as well as the everyday traumas of contemporary life, without ever sinking into cynical pessimism. Imbued with a uniquely sanguine perspective, his internationally acclaimed poems elevate and celebrate quotidian joys and fleeting moments of satisfaction. This collection, deftly translated by Clare Cavanagh, finds the poet revisiting those themes that have long preoccupied him - the enduring imprint of history, the beauty of nature, the place of the exile. Unseen Hand is a moving meditation on the sublimity of everyday life.

Following her 2010 publication dedicated to roses, Cologne-based artist Sabine Moritz here turns her attention to lilies, which she first began depicting in the mid 1990s. Working on paper to produce fifty-nine charcoal, pastel and oil pastel drawings, similiarly she often approaches works as studies or exercises in observation and representation. During the development of this publication, which was originally conceived as a collection of Moritz s drawings of lilies, the artist had the idea to introduce another ongoing body of work drawings of objects alongside the lilies. These objects are primarily statues, statuettes and figurines hand-made works of art from different periods in history, such as a classical torso, an African figurine, and a Buddhist head. Moritz s drawings of objects reflect a range of ideas and registers, moods and sentiments. Including the objects alongside the lilies opens up questions of time, life, death, belief, truth, human psychology and the very process o

"Wahre Poesie kann nicht ohne die Begegnung mit dem Geist existieren." Diese Begegnung färbt die Poesie laut Adam Zagajewski mit Fragen, mit Begeisterung und mit Zweifeln, und das ist seiner Meinung nach das Wesen der Poesie. In seinem Festvortrag anlässlich der Verleihung des Leopold Lucas-Preises 2016 beschreibt er sein Verständnis von Dichtung sowie seine Forderungen an sie. Poesie dürfe sich nicht vom Alltäglichen abwenden, da sie sich vom Wirklichen, vom Konkreten nähre. Adam Zagajewski versteht Poesie nicht als Antwort, sondern als Pause von den Geschehnissen in der Welt, die nicht zu begreifen sind. Zagajewskis Werke sind von philosophischen und theologischen Aspekten geprägt und schlagen Brücken der Begegnung und des Verstehens zwischen Ost- und Westeuropa und dem nordamerikanischen Kontinent.