Etel Adnan – författare

A lively and spontaneous interview with Etel Adnan about her absolute belief in the beauty of the world and the beauty of art. In these interviews with journalist and editor Laure Adler, conducted in the months before her death in November 2021, Etel Adnan traces with depth and emotion the founding experiences of her artistic approach, between poetry and painting. From her youth in Lebanon, her American years in New York and California, to her late recognition at Documenta in 2012 and her life in France, the conversation covers philosophy, painting, poetry and aesthetics, as well Adnan's views on history and politics in Europe, the Middle East, and the United States. These transcripts usher the experiences and observations of Adnan's long and rich life into an intimate and spontaneous conversation with a dear friend—a window on the “universe” of her imagination.

Författaren, konstnären, journalisten och feministikonen Etel Adnan föddes 1925 i Libanon med föräldrar från Grekland och Syrien. Efter studier på Sorbonne flyttade hon 1955 till USA och San Franciscobukten. Hennes tidiga verk skrev hon på franska men övergick sedan till att främst skriva på engelska. Adnan säger själv att hon alltsedan protesterna mot Vietnamnkriget identifierat sig som en amerikansk poet och har vid ett flertal tillfällen prisats och omnämnts som den främsta arabisk-amerikanska författaren. Hon är idag bosatt i Paris. I sitt författarskap använder sig Adnan av oväntade och experimentella stilar för att förete exilens predikament liksom politiska, sociala och genusgrundade orättvisor. I I hjärtat av hjärtat av ett annat land utgår Adnan från William H. Gass och rör sig mellan Beirut och San Francisco i en såväl personlig som politisk lyrisk prosa om de turbulenta, sneda och av kolonialismen påverkade relationerna mellan arab- och västvärlden. Ett oavbrutet flöde av små erfarenheter, iakttagelser, störningar, minimala extaser, eller knappt märkbara nederlag, detta som sammantaget utgör vårt dagliga liv, det där vi tänker på som trivialt.

A mosaic of lyrical vignettes, at once deeply personal and political, set against the turbulent backdrop of Arab/Western relations. Adnan writes, "Contrary to what is usually believed, it is not general ideas and grandiose unfolding of great events that impress the mind during times of heightened historic upheavals, but rather the uninterrupted flow of little experiences, observations, disturbances, small ecstasies, or barely perceptible discouragements that make up day-to-day living." Etel Adnan, a Lebanese American poet, painter, and essayist, lives in Paris, Beirut, and the San Francisco Bay Area. Among her books, the novel Sitt Marie Rose is considered a classic of Middle Eastern literature. She has been a powerful voice for compassion and empowerment in feminist and antiwar movements.

The fourth volume in PAJ’s Performance Ideas series, The Sun on the Tongue unfolds in an expanding universe of philosophical reflections on love, art, war, nature, and human existence. Etel Adnan, the internationally renowned Arab American writer and visual artist, crosses genres and continents and centuries in her literary texts, plays, poems, and art. Her plays At A Certain Hour of the Night, Crime of Honor and Tolerance are featured here, along with essays on Pina Bausch and Paul Klee, and an interview on her life and work. Her texts have been performed or adapted for theatre, opera, and radio in the U.S. and Europe. Robert Wilson invited her to write the French section of his multi-country opera, the CIVIL warS: a tree is best measured when it is down, in 1984.

WINNER of the INTERNATIONAL GRIFFIN POETRY PRIZEWINNER of the BEST TRANSLATED BOOK AWARDFINALIST for the 2020 LAMBDA LITERARY AWARDOn October 27, 2003, Adnan received a post card of a palm tree from the poet Khaled Najar, who she had met in the late seventies in Tunisia, sparking a collection of poems that would unspool over the next decade in a continuous discovery of the present moment. Originally written in French, these poems collapse time into single crystallized moments then explode outward to take in the scope of human history. In Time, we see an intertwining of war and love, coffee and bombs, empathetic observation and emphatic detail taken from both memory and the present of the poem to weave a tapestry of experience in non-linear time.

A heart-rending meditation on aging, grief, and the universal experience of facing down death.Shifting the Silence breaks the taboo around writing and speaking about our own deaths. In short, unrelenting paragraphs, Adnan grapples with the breadth of her life at ninety-five, the process of aging, and the knowledge of her own approaching death. The personal is continuously projected outwards and mirrored back through ruminations on climate catastrophe, the ongoing war in Syria, Mars missions, and Adnan’s view of the sea out of her window in Brittany in a poignant, often painful interplay between the interior and the cosmic.

These interrelated meditations explore the nature of the individual spirit and the individual spiritedness of the natural world. As skilled a philosopher as she is a poet, in Sea & Fog, Adnan weaves multiple sonic, theoretical, and syntactic pleasures at once.

On October 27, 2003, Adnan received a post card of a palm tree from the poet Khaled Najar, who she had met in the late seventies in Tunisia, sparking a collection of poems that would unspool over the next decade in a continuous discovery of the present moment. Originally written in French, these poems collapse time into single crystallized moments then explode outward to take in the scope of human history. In Time, we see an intertwining of war and love, coffee and bombs, empathetic observation and emphatic detail taken from both memory and the present of the poem to weave a tapestry of experience in non-linear time.

Etel Adnan’s evocative new book places night at its center to unearth memories held in the body, the spirit and the landscape. This striking new book continues Adnan’s meditative observation and inquiry into the experiences of her remarkable life.

Shifting the Silence does just that, breaks the social taboo around writing and speaking about our own deaths. In short unrelenting paragraphs, Adnan enumerates her personal struggle to conceptualize the breadth of her own life at 95, the process of aging, and the knowledge of her own inevitable death. The personal is continuously projected outwards and mirrored back through ruminations on climate catastrophe, California wildfires, the on-going war in Syria, planned missions to Mars, and the view of the sea from Adnan’s window in Brittany in a poignant often painful interplay between the interior and the cosmic.

A new volume of aphoristic prose and philosophical poetry from Etel Adnan, whose work The New York Times recently described as the "e;meditative heir to Nietzsche's aphorisms, Rilke's Book of Hours and the verses of Sufi mysticism."e; She writes: "e;Reality is messianic/ apocalyptic/ my soul is my terror."e;

Etel Adnan’s evocative new book places night at its center to unearth memories held in the body, the spirit and the landscape. This striking new book continues Adnan’s meditative observation and inquiry into the experiences of her remarkable life.

A new volume of aphoristic prose and philosophical poetry from Etel Adnan, whose work The New York Times recently described as the “meditative heir to Nietzsche’s aphorisms, Rilke’s Book of Hours and the verses of Sufi mysticism.” She writes: “Reality is messianic/apocalyptic/ my soul is my terror.”

"»Ich begegnete ihr vor acht Jahren in einem etwas mondänen Rahmen, inmitten wichtiger Menschen der Kunstbranche. Alle redeten, außer ihr. Sie stand mit dem Rücken zu den Leuten vor einem riesigen Kamin. Und schaute reglos ins Feuer. Ich wagte es nicht, sie anzusprechen, so intensiv schaute sie es an. Ich hatte ein paar ihrer Texte gelesen, darunter bemerkenswerte Gedichte, und ein Interview mit Hans Ulrich Obrist, in dem sie mich durch ihren umfassenden Blick auf die Welt beeindruckt hat. Sicher war sie eine Künstlerin, aber eben ›nicht nur‹, wie es so schön heißt. Dieses ›nicht nur‹ wollte ich kennenlernen.« - Laure AdlerIn diesen Gesprächen, die Laure Adler mit Etel Adnan wenige Monate vor deren Tod im Herbst 2021 geführt hat, zeichnet die Künstlerin tiefgründig und emotional die Erfahrungen nach, die ihr poetisches und malerisches Schaffen begründen. Sie erzählt von ihrer Kindheit im Libanon, ihrem Studium an der Sorbonne, den Jahren in New York und vor allem in Kalifornien, bis zu ihrer späten (und »anstrengenden«) Anerkennung auf der documenta in Kassel im Jahr 2012. Das Gespräch zwischen Laure Adler und Etel Adnan wird schnell komplizinnenhaft, denn es ist auch das manchmal schwierige Schicksal von Frauen, das betrachtet und hinterfragt wird.Der Ton der 96-jährigen Etel Adnan ist lebendig, geradezu jugendlich und durchdrungen vom Glauben an die Schönheit, die allem innewohnt: die Schönheit der Welt, die Schönheit der Kunst, der Farben, des Bergs, des Meeres, des Lichts.»Die Farben des Mittelmeers sind ein Wunder, so schön sind sie.«"

In ihrem poetischen Essay beschreibt die Künstlerin, Dichterin und Essayistin Etel Adnan (*1925) verschiedene Formen der Liebe: die Liebe zu einer Idee, zu Gott, zu Dingen und zur Natur. Doch haben wir uns heute weit entfernt von einer sich selbst verzehrenden Liebe zu etwas Höherem, wie sie etwa Nietzsche in den Wahnsinn oder den islamischen Mystiker al-Hallaj in den Märtyrertod trieb. Die Liebe zur Natur, die Adnan anhand eigener Erfahrungen schildert, scheint sogar der Verachtung gewichen zu sein – wie sonst ließe sich die ökologische Katastrophe erklären, auf die wir zusteuern? Der Preis dafür, diese aufzuhalten, wäre zu groß, denn er wäre mit der radikalen Veränderung unserer Lebensweise verbunden – ähnlich wie die konventionellste Form der Liebe, die zwischen zwei Menschen, die eine Intensität mit sich bringt, die nur wenige bereit sind zu ertragen. Sprache: Deutsch/Englisch

In ihrem poetischen Essay beschreibt die Künstlerin, Dichterin und Essayistin Etel Adnan (*1925) verschiedene Formen der Liebe: die Liebe zu einer Idee, zu Gott, zu Dingen und zur Natur. Doch haben wir uns heute weit entfernt von einer sich selbst verzehrenden Liebe zu etwas Höherem, wie sie etwa Nietzsche in den Wahnsinn oder den islamischen Mystiker al-Hallaj in den Märtyrertod trieb. Die Liebe zur Natur, die Adnan anhand eigener Erfahrungen schildert, scheint sogar der Verachtung gewichen zu sein – wie sonst ließe sich die ökologische Katastrophe erklären, auf die wir zusteuern? Der Preis dafür, diese aufzuhalten, wäre zu groß, denn er wäre mit der radikalen Veränderung unserer Lebensweise verbunden – ähnlich wie die konventionellste Form der Liebe, die zwischen zwei Menschen, die eine Intensität mit sich bringt, die nur wenige bereit sind zu ertragen.    Sprache: Deutsch/Englisch

A bridger of worlds A poet, painter and philosopher, Etel Adnan’s life and work was shaped by a profound and vibrant exchange between Arab and Western cultures. In 2024, the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture in Dhahran is organizing the first major exhibition in Saudi Arabia dedicated to one of the most important voices in modern American-Arab literature and visual art. Living a life between Lebanon, France and California, and influenced by her travels to Mexico and North Africa, Adnan’s work is characterized by her openness to different media and languages, both literary and visual. Refusing to continue writing in French to show solidarity with Algeria during the Algerian War of Independence, she began to paint using bright colors as a universal language. Alongside this, leporellos became her signature medium: the pocket-sized books unfold into several meters long, lavishly illustrated tapestries of poetry and painting. Opening up new perspectives, this catalogue brings together a large number of works from all periods that emphasize the richness and diversity of Adnan’s oeuvre, and explores various themes essential to a deeper understanding of her work. A comprehensive chronology will also enrich the book, making it not least a reference tool in Arabic.