Lesung aufbrechen - ankommen: mit mit Joachim Bessing "Wachs & Gold" & Verena Issel, Künstlerin

The terms “departure” and “arrival” are understood both geographically and symbolically in relation to life changes; they are linked to courage, hope, and security as well as to desires and fears. The events in this series, held as part of the exhibition *Uncertain Maps*, each bring together an author and an artist who engage with the theme in different yet very similar ways.
Joachim Bessing sends his protagonist to the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa: what he is looking for there and who he really is are constantly changing. But what he finds in the Ethiopian capital proves just as fickle and contradictory—a city he knows almost nothing about, where, amid corrugated-iron walls and colonial facades, he has a wide variety of encounters and experiences in a world overshadowed by colonial atrocities.
Verena Issel’s interest in different countries and cultures has taken her on travel grants and artist-in-residence programs to Russia, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Lithuania, and Papua New Guinea. Her art, which plays with a wide variety of often everyday materials, is inspired not least by what she observes and discovers on her many journeys. She also keeps a keen eye on the social and political conditions in each place. In 2023/24, a large-scale installation by Verena Issel was on view in the exhibition *Bodies, Grids and Ecstasy* at KAI 10 | ARTHENA FOUNDATION. 
Moderator: Maren Jungclaus, Literaturbüro NRW

In cooperation with KAI 10 | ARTHENA FOUNDATION