POESIEGESPRÄCH: KIRILS ĒCIS & ÁSTA FANNEY SIGURÐARDÓTTIR – es sei denn die wörter trügen samen

In the organizer's words:

Studio space

Two generations meet in this poetry talk: Kirils Ēcis (born 2000 in Riga), the youngest poet in the international evening program, and Ásta Fanney Sigurðardóttir (born 1987 in Reykjavik), one of the most important voices in Icelandic poetry. Both are united in their poetic practice by a love of experimentation and the use of different artistic disciplines.

Ēcis is a shooting star of contemporary Latvian poetry and a poet, actor, scriptwriter and member of the band ALEJAS. In an interview, he once said: "My poetic world begins where language as a system ends and language as a dance begins."

His poems zoom in on that short but intense time between childhood and adulthood. They almost frenetically celebrate upheavals and zones of ambivalence, suddenly sprouting armpit hair, the first love that becomes an obsession. The brief happiness of secret escapes is just as present in these verses as the disaster of a sudden death that tears apart the delicate bonds of friendship.

Air-colored ghosts, sparkling crows and rocks of flesh: Ásta Fanney's poems oscillate between sagas and pop culture, between fantasy and nature writing. Her verses cover the pages like lichen on a house wall. References to mineral and organic material intertwine and conjure up the nature of Iceland, into which the poetic voice inscribes itself. Her verses are interspersed with signposts, boundary stones, flashing lights and flowers that lead the reader on a journey through dream and waking, truth and illusion.

Kathrin Bach in conversation with Kirils Ēcis and Ásta Fanney Sigurðardóttir.

The event will be interpreted into English and German. With the kind support of ECHOO Konferenzdolmetschen.

Project management: Timo Berger

Supported by:

Icelandic Literature Center, Latvian Literature, the European poetry platform Versopolis, funded by the Creative Europe Program of the European Union. The poesiefestival berlin is a project of the Haus für Poesie in cooperation with the silent green Kulturquartier and the Akademie der Künste and is funded by the Hauptstadtkulturfonds.