NIMM PLATZ - Kölner Literatursommer mit Georg Smirnov

In the organizer's words:

Cologne-based author Georg Smirnov reads from his poetry debut "Zurichtungen", published by Rimbaud in Aachen in 2024. In his book, Smirnov, who was born in Russia in 1981, creates an intimate family and social panorama of abuse, trauma, powerlessness and speechlessness between the Soviet Union and the Federal Republic of Germany. Smirnov traces the impact and continuity of the Stalinist and National Socialist legacy of violence right up to the present day. Drawing on role models such as Bulgakov, Mayakovsky, Gorky, Trakl and Celan as well as Whitman, Goethe and Virgil, Smirnov's poems describe a dehumanizing process of correction. Enriched with pop quotations as well as biblical motifs, Smirnov tells of the loss of human dignity. The poems are characterized by a groping search for an adequate language for the abysses of the systematic use of violence. The reading will be moderated by author and literary organizer Marie Foulis.

The Cologne Literature Summer is curated by the Cologne Literature Scene.

_{NIMM PLATZ am Neumarkt is a joint project of Cologne's cultural administration and the independent cultural scene, with contributions from the University of Music and Dance (HfMT) and the Academy of Media Arts (KHM).}