This spring, Kultur | lx – Arts Council Luxembourg will give enthusiastic readers an opportunity to discover and explore the diversity of Luxembourg’s literary and book publishing scene with booths at both the Brussels Book Fair and Leipzig Book Fair.

This will be Kultur | lx – Arts Council Luxembourg’s first time exhibiting at the Luxembourg booth at these two major events.

Four Luxembourg publishers – Capybarabooks, Hydre Edition, Kiwi E.L.G. and PassaParola Editions – have opted to take advantage of this opportunity to exhibit their latest French-language releases in literature, non-fiction and children’s books at the Brussels Book Fair (30 March to 2 April 2023 on the booth “Livres du Luxembourg” – n°209).

And at the Leipzig Book Fair, the second largest in Germany, which this year will be held from 27 to 30 April, six Luxembourg publishers – Black Fountain Press, Capybarabooks, Editions Guy Binsfeld, Hydre Editions, Kremart Editions, Point Nemo Publishing – will present their new spring releases.

Not only are these fairs critically important for helping boost the profile of Luxembourg works and authors – through the organisation of readings and the presentation of authors attending the events — but they are also a platform where professionals can meet up and discuss and debate issues, while serving as the perfect venue for the general public to discover Luxembourg authors and find out just how diverse the Luxembourg book sector actually is.

To promote the publishers and authors present at these fairs to a wider readership at home with the bookstagram phenomenon, Kultur | lx has developed a new video format that will be released on 15 March on Instagram only.

Committed to promote artists from Luxembourg, Kultur | lx – Arts Council Luxembourg will be present for the second consecutive year at jazzahead! in Bremen, Germany.

This presence will be made possible through a booth which will give all the professionals involved in the Luxembourg jazz scene the opportunity to meet the foreign delegations attending this key trade fair for the jazz sector.

In 2022, jazzahead! gathered 2700 participants from 55 different countries. A central platform for the jazz sector, taking place every year in Bremen, the event gives rise to formal and informal networking, as well as showcases and conferences. In 2022, first year during which Luxembourg presented a national booth at jazzahead, 14 people from Luxembourg’s jazz scene (artists, bookers and managers, promoters) came to Bremen and had the chance to meet all the professionals attending the event.

In order to give artists and independent professionals the opportunity to attend the event and expand their network, Kultur | lx provides financial support.

We are looking forward to meeting you at the booth nr. 6B31! – more information to follow.

Kultur | lx – Arts Council Luxembourg, in collaboration with the Cultural service at the Embassy of Luxembourg in Berlin, is offering a six-week choreographic research and production residency at the Uferstudios Berlin, on the basis of a call for applications. This residency abroad encourages choreographers to immerse themselves in the Berlin art scene and promotes networking with the local art scene, contributing to the long-term development of their professional career.

The jury, made-up by Ainhoa Achutegui (neimënster), Mathis Junet (TROIS C-L – Centre de Création Chorégraphique Luxembourgeois), Jérôme Konen (Kinneksbond, Centre Culturel Mamer) and Saeed Hani (choreographer and 2021 laureate)assessed the applications received and forwarded their recommendations to the Uferstudios. Following the selection process, Anne-Mareike Hess‘ application was selected by the direction of Uferstudios Berlin.

Anne-Mareike Hess

Statement of Uferstudios Berlin

Simone Willeit, director of the Uferstudios, was delighted with the quality of the applications submitted by the jury. Knowing and appreciating the work of Anne-Mareike Hess, Simone Willeit was convinced by the Luxembourg choreographer’s residency project and particularly emphasised her intention to collaborate and interact with many artists in the framework of this residency. Anne-Mareike Hess has been familiar with the work of the Uferstudios for a long time and has accompanied Luxembourg artists in residence there in recent years. There is also no doubt that research period at the Uferstudios will strengthen her anchorage in the Berlin art scene.


Biography

Anne-Mareike Hess (DE/LU) works as a choreographer and performer. Trained at the Conservatory in Luxembourg, she continued her studies at the HfMDK in Frankfurt am Main and at the HZT Inter-University Center for Dance in Berlin. As a performer, she has worked with choreographers such as William Forsythe (Human Writes), Eeva Muilu, Rosalind Goldberg (MIT and Jump with me), Ingri Fiksdal (Cosmic body) and Antje Velsinger (PERFORM!), with which she has performed in a number of prestigious venues around the world.

Anne-Mareike’s works have been shown at numerous venues and festivals throughout Europe. This includes: I believe that we are having a dialogue, Tanzwut and Synchronization in process. Warrior, her first evening-long solo (2018), has been selected by Aerowaves Twenty20. In 2021 she premiered the one-on-one telephone project Through the wire and the new solo Dreamer.

For many years Anne-Mareike worked in close collaboration with TROIS C-L – Centre de Création Chorégraphique Luxembourgeois (LU) and Skogen (SE). Since 2016 she is associated artist at Weld in Stockholm (SE), in 2017-2019 she has been supported by the Grand Luxe network and she became an associated artist at neimënster (LU) in 2020-2023.

2012 Anne-Mareike was awarded with the Prize for emerging artists by the “Stiftung zur Förderung junger Talente”. 2015 Anne-Mareike was awarded with the “Danzpraïs” from the Ministry of Culture in Luxembourg.

Anne-Mareike Hess about her residency : « My motivation to apply for this residency, is my deep wish to have some creative time in Berlin to, outside of any production context, further and expand my choreographic language and practice and dive into this new research around the subject of “portrait”. Uferstudios is a vibrant place where many artists work and cross and performances and festivals are happening frequently. This residency would be the opportunity for me to finally connect to some great artists and colleagues based in Berlin and invite them to the studio to join me in the studio. »

 

 

A call for applications for the 2023 Research and Creation Residency at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin resulted in 5 project proposals The jury met on two occasions: once in Luxembourg on 28 November; and once in Berlin on 30 November. It commended the quality of the applications and projects submitted. The first round jury members were: Clément Minghetti (Mudam – Luxembourg); Claudine Hemmer (Ministry of Culture); and Lisa Kohl (Resident 2022). The second round jury members were experts chosen by the Künstlerhaus Bethanien.

The jury decided to award the residency to Yann Annicchiarico for his research project titled “Mitdenken – Von Berberaffen und Kletten im Atelier” (Thinking – About Barbary Macaques and Burdock in the Atelier).

Jury Statement
The jury was particularly impressed by the energy the artist has poured into his personal research. The complexity of his work which explores radical otherness through cognitive thresholds is further developed in this proposed project. The artist’s approach this time follows the fine line that artificially separates humans, animals, nature and culture. Using the senses, he creates a way to perceive phenonmenon that are otherwise inaccessible to cartesian thinking. This time, however, Annicchiarico uses a geography and topics that are much more intimate and personal.

The  Künstlerhaus Bethanien jury noted the following:
“We feel that the artist’s aesthetic approach is particularly varied, lying somewhere between art/research and magic. By exploring the relationship between the human and non-human, he is in direct contact with the most burning of contemporary issues. We therefore believe that he is extremely contemporary in the best sense of the term.”

The project (extract from the application)
“My work aims to integrate the way in which other living beings live into human thought. It seeks to abolish the artificial separation of nature and culture. It is in this light that I’ve been following current theories on non-human anthropology from the past decade with great interest. The body of works presented in my portfolio began with a chance encounter when a moth passed through one of my sculptures and left a trace of its presence. As flying, noctural creatures, the biological make up of moths offers radically different ways to exist and perceive the world, in comparison to ours.  My small human universe was enriched by that chance encounter with an insect. Another important aspect of my work concerns the way in which architecture, through modern cities, structures our human thought and is undoubtedly the origin for this artificial division between nature and the world, nature and culture.”

About Yann Annicchiarico
Yann Annicchiarico (1983, Luxembourg) has held solo exhibitions at KIT – Kunst im Tunnel in Düsseldorf (2020), Nosbaum Reding Projects in Luxembourg (2019), and the Centre des Arts Pluriels in Ettelbruck (2018), and joint exhibitions at the MUDAM – Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean in Luxembourg (2021) and the Museo Archeologico del Chianti Senese in Italy (2019). He has been an research artist at the Contemporary Art and Temporalities of History (ACTH) research department at the Lyon Ecole des Beaux-Arts (ENSBA) since 2011. He has completed residencies at the Fonderie Darling in Montreal (2019) and the Villa Medicis Académie de France in Rome (2015). He received the Francis-André grant in 2020 for his first monographic exhibition in a public institution at the  KIT – Kunst im Tunnel in Düsseldorf. His work was selected for New Positions at Art Cologne in 2019. In 2022, he received a Kultur | lx Portfolio Grant for his book, De papillons de nuit et de l’échelle de Muybridge/Of Moths and Muybridge’s Scale. He lives and works in Luxembourg.

 

Kultur | lx – Arts Council Luxembourg, in partnership with Lëtzebuerger Bicherfrënn – Les Amis du Livre a.s.b.l., and in collaboration with the National Centre for Literature, launched a call for a two-month writer’s residency at the Literarisches Colloquium (LCB) in Berlin, including a supporting grant. A space for reflection, a workshop for experimentation, and an incubator for talent, this prestigious international literary institution organises readings, seminars and other literary events.

Jury members Christiane Krier (Lëtzebuerger Bicherfrënn), Frank Hansen (Lëtzebuerger Bicherfrënn), Ludivine Jehin (National Centre for Literature), Sébastian Thiltges (University of Luxembourg) and Nora Wagener (author & Luxembourg laureate) assessed the applications received and forwarded their recommendations to the LCB. At the end of the selection process, Jeff Schinker‘s application was selected.


Jury Statement
Jeff Schinker is a very active and prolific writer. His work is an integral part of Luxembourg’s literary and cultural scene. Through a large body of published works, the author has demonstrated a flair for experimentation and innovation. Supported by a start-up grant from l’Œuvre de la Grande-Duchesse Charlotte, the author completed a writer’s residency at the Literarisches Colloquium Berlin in 2016. During that period, he was able to develop important new contacts and explore Berlin’s literary scene and sector.

The jury unanimously agreed on the quality of the research proposed and the reasoning behind the text the author plans to write. The author will address a subject that is still relatively unexplored in Luxembourg’s literature: emigration stories. A residency at the Literarisches Colloquium Berlin is not only highly relevant to Jeff Schinker’s research, but also a key stage in his career and development as a writer.

The jury is therefore pleased to award this residency which will contribute to the promotion and development of Luxembourg’s authors and literature.


Author biography
After a childhood full of fun and games he barely remembers, Jeff Schinker (1985) spent his awkward teenagers devouring a ton of books, thereby causing a certain amount of damage to his digestive system. He then moved to Paris where he began a never-ending course of studies at university that could one day be crowned with a doctorate in comparative literature should he ever decide to pick them up again. He frittered away his time in the French capital, a clear sign that he was preparing for a career as a writer. He just needed his first texts, which he duly wrote in his studio apartment, and which were so bad that he couldn’t even find himself a Max Brod he could ask to burn them on his behalf. The writer persevered, however, as evidenced by his contribution to Fragments 3973, published by Hydre Éditions in 2013. After Retrouvailles, which came out in 2015 with the same publisher, things really took off. Unable to live off his writing despite the incredible success of his first book (in 2022 alone, the publisher reportedly sold one or two copies), he turned to journalism and became the editor of the Tageblatt culture section. After being included in several anthologies published in English and French, Schinker made a comeback with Sabotage, a megalomaniac project written in four languages. It was destined to be a flop, but was in fact shortlisted for the Servais Prize, the Lëtzebuerger Buchpräis, and the European Prize for Literature. In addition to these two trades, Schinker also organises readings which are much like his books, namely a little off the wall. After submitting the manuscript for Ma Vie sous les tentes to his publisher – a book that would also be shortlisted for the Servais Prize- he disappeared into thin air, disillusioned by the world in general and the literary microcosm in particular. According to a few juicy rumours doing the rounds on the Luxembourg cultural circuit, he’s apparently working on a fourth novel, but no one knows much about it, beyond the fact it’ll be full of sentences that are far too long.

 

The LCB residency is made possible due to an endowment from the Lëtzebuerger Bicherfrënn – Les Amis du Livre a.s.b.l. who support the book sector by donating part of the proceeds from sales of second-hand books by Lëtzebuerger Bicherfrënn volunteers to promote the production of literary works in Luxembourg.

Authors receiving the grant also undertake to write a Bourglënster Ried which will be published as a limited-edition pamphlet funded and co-published by the National Centre for Literature.

 

From 19 to 23 October, Kultur | lx – Arts Council Luxembourg attended the 74th edition of the Frankfurt Book Fair with a national booth “Books from Luxembourg”. This booth hosted 10 publishers  (Black Fountain Press, capybarabooks, Editions Guy Binsfeld, Editions Schortgen, Ernster Editions, Hydre Éditions, KIWI E.L.G., Kremart Edition, PassaParola Editions, PersPektiv Editions) and showcased 37 fiction, non-fiction and children’s titles in five languages: English, French, German, Italian and Luxemburgish.

“Translate, Transfer, Transform”

On 20 October, the Luxembourg Minister of Culture, Ms Sam Tanson, visited the Frankfurt Book Fair and the “Books From Luxembourg” booth.
A networking event was organised inviting interaction between the Luxembourg scene and international professionals.

On the occasion of this networking event, Sam Tanson commented on the theme of the 2022 edition of the fair: “the contours of the Luxembourg literary landscape could be defined by the following words: dynamic, diverse, multilingual. And this is how Luxembourg fits in with the theme of the Frankfurt Book Fair 2022. In Luxembourg, too, translations and the mediation of Luxembourg authors abroad are the focus of attention.”

The booth, designed by Studio Polenta and featuring a artwork by illustrator Marc Angel, was a meeting point for Luxembourg publishers to make new contacts, exchange ideas and dialogue with international book professionals, present their publishing programme and authors and plan new projects.

Luxembourg literature was also present outside the stand: Tullio Forgiarini, winner of the European Union Prize for Literature in 2013, took part in a round table discussion on book promotion, as well as on the writing, illustration and translation of stories.
On the Leseinsel der unabhängigen Verlage, organised by the Kurt Wolff Stiftung, the Luxembourg author Bernd Marcel Gönner read poems from his latest book “Großes Rasenstück” published by KILLROY media Verlag with the support of Kultur | lx through a publishing support.

From 19 to 23 October, Kultur | lx – Arts Council Luxembourg invites you to explore Luxembourg’s literary landscape at its national stand at the Frankfurt Book Fair, Germany.

The regular rendezvous is not only an excellent opportunity for publishing professionals from Luxembourg and the rest of the world to lay the foundations for future partnerships, but also the perfect place to promote authors from Luxembourg and their work.

After a scaled-down version with 73,500 visitors in 2021 due to the pandemic, Frankfurt Book Fair will once again offer a unique space for publishing professionals to meet. The Books from Luxembourg (stand G26/Hall 3.1) will host 10 publishers (Black Fountain Press, capybarabooks, Editions Guy Binsfeld, Editions Schortgen, Ernster Editions, Hydre Éditions, KIWI E.L.G., Kremart Edition, PassaParola Editions, PersPektiv Editions) and showcase 37 fiction, non-fiction and children’s titles in five languages: English, French, German, Italian and Luxemburgish.

In order to promote the publishers and their author, Kultur | lx published, in collaboration with Monogram and Marc Angel, 3 brochures : Fiction, Non Fiction
and Children and Young Adults.

These figures hint at the variety in Luxembourg’s dynamic, diverse and multilingual literary landscape. Luxembourg therefore clearly reflects the 2022 Frankfurt Book Fair’s theme perfectly: Translate. Transfer. Transform.

A networking side event on 20 October and the stand itself will offer Luxembourg publishers an unmissable opportunity to network, meet and talk to international publishing professionals and to showcase their authors. Before the fair, Kultur | lx will also organise a range of workshops for publishers to help them prepare for meetings and grow their network.

As part of this programme, the Embassy in Berlin will host Literatur de Lux(e)—a literary soirée with Elise Schmit and Nora Wagener, moderated by Jeff Thoss—on 13 October.

The Künstlerhaus Bethanien is organising a group exhibition from 30 September to 23 October (opening on 29 September, 7 PM) presenting the work of 5 of its residents: François Lemieux (Canada/Quebec), Lisa Kohl (Luxembourg), Nicole Rafiki (Norway), Yun-Pei Hsiung (Taiwan) and Thomas Schmahl (France).

Focus on the work of Lisa Kohl, laureate of the 2022 call for applications offered by Kultur | lx, in residency from 01 July to 31 December.

The work of Lisa Kohl (b. 1988 in Luxembourg) can be understood as a conglomerate of digital media, installations, field research, documentation, staging and narration. Her artistic excavations revolve around the ephemeral, the absent and the imaginary. Aesthetic phenomena of absence, migration and situatedness play a central role in her work. In the field of tension between material presence and actual events on the one hand, and the realm of the possible, the fictitious and the invisible on the other, she finds near-endless artistic possibilities to merge both instances into simulations.

The video THE GAME (Bihać | Bosnian-Croatian Border | 2022) highlights the struggles of migrants through the aesthetics of gaming. Escape routes are shown on a smartphone from the perspective of a young Afghan man. The device is reminiscent of a VR game console. In the voiceover, the protagonist can be heard describing the different forms of escape and pushbacks that he personally experienced. A subtle sense of menace and tension underpins his account.

The photo series BLINDSPOT (Bihać | Bosnian-Croatian Border | Calais | France | 2022) metaphorically embodies the presence of the absent and the visibility of the invisible. The elements it depicts, such as the shelter, the mihrab carpet and the body cast, symbolically allude to the notion of refuge and the appropriation of anonymous spaces of living and prayer. The sacral mood here refers to belief and hope in relation to identity and strangeness, intimacy and home(lessness).

The series HALIDOM (Canary Islands | Spain–North Africa | 2022) represents sainthood on an iconographic level – as a pictorial metaphor for life and death, presence and absence, limitation and expanse, height and abyss. Sculptural figures in barren areas and border zones become symbolic monuments and representatives of the unseen. The veil is synonymous with concealment, protection and camouflage. The relief and the folds of the cloth suggest notions of divinity, heroism and inviolability. This series confronts us with spaces of transition – an allegory for the longing for freedom and redemption.

The video installation ACROSS (2022), created during the artist’s stay at Künstlerhaus Bethanien, confronts us with brutalist window architecture and a view of a vast sky lined with dissolving clusters of clouds. Concrete and air these two materials could not be more different and yet here they form a harmonious entity that calls to mind countless images, from medieval Annunciations to window depictions in German Romanticism and famous film scenes. They all have one thing in common: the window serves (in various ways) as a threshold between this world and the hereafter that not only separates the two but also establishes a contact between them. The artwork was created in collaboration with the sound designer Sören Schenk.

EXHIBITION SPACES
Kottbusser Straße 10
10999 Berlin
Free admission
Tue – Sun: 2pm – 7pm 

 

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From 31 August to 3 September, Kultur | lx – Arts Council Luxembourg and the TROIS C-L – Centre de Création Chorégraphique Luxembourgeois showcased the rich diversity of Luxembourg’s contemporary dance scene on a national booth in Düsseldorf (Germany) as part of the “internationale tanzmesse nrw 2022”.

This edition of the Tanzmesse has been a wind of change for all partners and participants All participants discovered a new space design and a programme format that allowed for discussions, listening, performances and the presentation of new projects with the aim of establishing new contacts and strengthening existing ones.

No less than 7 Luxembourg companies, made up of choreographers Catarina Barbosa and Baptiste Hilbert (AWA As We Are), Sarah Baltzinger, Jill Crovisier, Anne-Mareike Hess, Elisabeth Schilling, Simone Mousset and Léa Tirabasso, as well as their professional entourage, were able to take part in the world’s most important meeting dedicated to contemporary dance and were able to set up meetings with no less than 146 professionals from the sector.

The various meetings, both spontaneous and planned, made possible by Tanzmesse, allowed the more than 1,300 professionals present at the fair to get to know the current and future projects of Luxembourg artists. These face-to-face exchanges, which have been awaited for 4 years, due to the cancellation of the previous edition in 2020, will not have failed to nourish the prospects for the dissemination of artists and the international collaboration of Luxembourg institutions after 2 seasons marked by the pandemic.

For Elisabeth Schilling, who is attending the fair for the first time, “ the tanzmesse was an extremely important networking event, which – especially after the Corona period – allowed me to renew old contacts and establish new ones. In addition to discussions to sell productions, I found the sharing of experiences within art production in different national contexts very enriching and inspiring. It was also a great pleasure for me to visit the tanzmesse with my colleagues and, as part of the Luxembourg delegation, to be able to represent the diverse creations of our scene in an international context.”

Over the coming months, Kultur | lx and the TROIS C-L will follow up on the development of the discussions initiated at the tanzmesse by the invited companies and will propose further opportunities to meet with international stages for the promotion, visibility and dissemination of Luxembourg creation.

On 8 September, choreographer Elisabeth Schilling presented her production Hear Eyes Move – Dances with Ligeti at the renowned Kunstfest Weimar festival in Germany, a dialogue between the excellence of the choreographic language and the virtuosity of the music, performed by pianist Cathy Krier.

“György Ligeti was inspired by scientific, literary and philosophical concepts in composing his Études, and for me this was a great material to transcribe into the choreography“, explains Elisabeth Schilling.

Treating dance and music as contiguous forms that develop alongside and within each other, she produced a dance-concert and a concert-dance full of captivating multi-sensorial imagery produced with five dancers and pianist Cathy Krier.

“Cathy Krier played this repertoire, which is one of the most virtuoso, like a star, the dancers were magnificent in their interpretation and we received a very warm welcome from the public” confided the young choreographer after the performance at the Kunstfest Weimar, before adding that a tour is planned for next year to celebrate the composer’s 100th birthday.

This is particularly good news for this production, which had to be postponed from 2021 to the Kunstfest Weimar.

Hear Eyes Move – Dances with Ligeti is supported by Kultur | lx – Arts Council Luxembourg