unruly readings - Widerspenstige Natur

In the organizer's words:

The second round of unruly readings presents performative readings in which the view of the human relationship to nature is poetically shifted, sensually experienced and humorously questioned. In her current volume of poetry Lava. Rituals, the poet and musician Rike Scheffler initiates a way of speaking connected to nature, which she transforms into a polyphonic performance during her live appearances. Using voice, loop machine and synthesizer, she creates an immersive reality from the poems, in which the garden of the Orangerie Theater with its plants, stones and creatures also plays a part. In her video work Columbarium, Cologne-based poet and artist Lisa James focuses on a dovecote built in Norfolk (UK) around 1700. This offers the animals protection from enemies and the weather and in turn allows humans to control the population and maintain the white plumage. For the unruly readings, she is developing a performative reading from this, which revolves around the coexistence of different species; around control and resistance. The artist and architect Jasmine Parsley is involved in the practice of "urban foraging", the search for edible plants in the city. She will create a picnic in the Orangerie Theater garden, where the audience and artists will engage in conversation at the end of the second unruly readings.

About the artists

Lisa James
is a media artist and writer based in Cologne, where she is a postgraduate student at the Academy of Media Arts. Her interdisciplinary works with a focus on text, installation or (moving) image often explore the relationship between humans and nature. She works on the basis of themes and research and draws on methods of artistic research. Her poetry and prose have appeared in the literary journals DAS GEDICHT, 'apostrophe and WORD, among others. She was a finalist in the 31st open mike - competition for young literature at the Haus für Poesie, Berlin. In 2022, she was awarded 3rd place and the Audience Award of the Cologne Prize for Young Literature for her poem cycle Die Leerstelle, das bist du. Her project Columbarium was supported by the Auftakt-Stipendium of the Kunststiftung NRW in 2023.

Jasmine Parsley
is an artist and architect based in Berlin. With an eye trained in architecture, she analyzes and questions the implicit ideologies and hierarchies inscribed in public places. She also sees architecture as a performative practice with transformative potential: bodies that come together, communicate and linger, thereby opening up new ways of encountering everyday, banal spaces. She often uses food, especially wild herbs and 'weeds', and moves the kitchen into the public space to show edible plant species and spontaneous vegetation and to communicate ecological issues. She works with institutions such as Haus am Waldsee, LAS Art Foundation, Naturkundemuseum Berlin, Floating University, and Deutsches Architektur Zentrum.

Rike Scheffler
is a poet and musician based in Berlin. She works in areas between language and music. Her work includes poems and poetic essays, readings, concerts and performances, as well as sonic ecosystems and spatial installations. Scheffler studied psychology in Berlin and literary writing in Leipzig. She has received numerous grants and scholarships and has performed internationally at festivals. Her poetry collection der rest ist resonanz (2014) won the Orphil Debut Prize for political and avant-garde writing. 2023 saw the publication of Lava. Rituals. Poems, her second volume of poetry, which unfolds poetic perspectives on contemporary climate change through scenarios of possible futures. Her poems have been translated into English, Spanish, Slovenian and Czech.

Production: unruly readings
Cooperation: Orangerie Theater Köln, Literaturhaus Köln, DFG Graduate School "Gegenwart/Literatur. History, theory and praxeology of a relationship", studiobühne Cologne.

Concept unruly readings: Son Lewandowski, Michaela Predeick and Katharina Stahlhofen | Production: Inga Hörter | Controlling: Neele Renzland | Photo: unruly readings

Supported by: Kunststiftung NRW, Cultural Office of the City of Cologne and RheinenergieStiftung.

Price information:

7 € | 15 € (excl. fees): Reduced admission applies to school pupils, trainees, students, Cologne Pass holders, job seekers, people with disabilities, accompanying persons for the severely disabled can enter free of charge.