Join us at Gliwickie Zakłady Urządzeń Technicznych (GZUT) to experience contemporary European poetry from Poland, Finland, Serbia, Hungary and Slovenia.
There probably won’t be harps or violins.
There probably won’t be candles.
And almost certainly, we will not ask the question of what the poet meant.
Instead, at the Hala Modeli in Gliwice, surrounded by casts of statues and monuments, we will be on the lookout for what is new, authentic and living.
We will hear poems by the Serbian poet Radmila Petrović – about rebellion, growing up in the countryside, dancing to Sian Sakic’s songs, about the grandmother from Herceg Novi and the wartime experiences of the grandfather, who didn’t want to join either the Chetniks or the partisans and ended up being chased by both groups.
There will be poetry by Małgorzata Lebda – sensual and tender accounts of everyday experiences, touching upon the meaning of the amber wine of winter, things brought by letters from distant Serbia and places where mornings last until night.
We will also listen to poems of the Hungarian author Márton Simon, extraordinary takes on ordinary matters – conversations held over remnants of sushi bought at a petrol station, the sequence of movements over overheated car engines, the hum of hairdryers, deserted streets on Christmas Eve and a longing for a decent cup of coffee.
We will discover poems by the Finnish poet Harri Hertell – humorous instructions on how to understand tomatoes and give each meal the necessary grooming, care and patience.
There will be poems by Anja Golob from Slovenia – about a crown named marica and light that reaches us from below.
The author of the artistic concept of the event is Weronika Murek, playwright and writer, the visual artist Rafał Siderski is responsible for the photographic setting, Wenancjusz Ochmann for the music, and the event is organised by the ARTeria Foundation.
20 March 2024, 19:00, Hala Modeli GZUT
Free entry
The event is partnered by Gliwickie Zakłady Urządzeń Technicznych.
The project is co-financed by the Creative Europe Programme and the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage’s funds from the Cultural Promotion Fund.
Anja Zag Golob
(born in 1976), Slovenia
Anja Zag Golob is a poet, a columnist for the national radio, a translator from German and English, and the editor-in-chief and co-founder of an independent publishing house called VigeVageKnjige, specializing in children’s comics and graphic novels for (young) adults. She has published four poetry collections in Slovene and has been honoured with the Jenko Award for the best poetry collection twice (2014, 2016) and the Kritiško sito Award for the best Slovene book (2020). Her poems have been translated into over 10 languages and have appeared in several anthologies. She resides with her family in Ljubljana and Maribor.
Harri Hertell
(born in 1985), Finland
Harri Hertell is a Helsinki-based Finnish poet, a DJ, and a poetry event producer. He has authored seven poetry collections, a non-fiction book on performance poetry, and has released four spoken word recordings. In autumn 2022, he published his first poetry book for children.
Hertell received the Uusimaa Art Prize in 2021 and founded the Helsinki Poetry Connection collective in 2008. Hertell’s poetry captures the wonder and complexity of daily life with compassion, unfiltered honesty, and with an eye for minutiae. His work explores themes such as parenthood, mental health, collective ethical dilemmas, and humanity’s relationship with nature. His poetry has been translated into multiple languages, and he has performed across several European countries. His first English poetry book, “All Emotions Allowed,” is set to be published in autumn 2023.
Radmila Petrović
(born in 1996), Serbia
Radmila Petrović was born in Užice, Serbia. She holds a master’s degree in Economics from the Faculty of Economics in Belgrade. Petrović is a highly sought-after poet in former Yugoslavia, with her work featured in anthologies, national and international journals, and numerous festivals and poetry readings across Europe. She won the 42nd Lim River Poetry Evenings and published a collection of poems titled “The Scent of Earth” in 2014. As the winner of the 22nd Poetry Competition “Desanka Maksimović,” she released “Cellulose Rock ‘n’ Roll” in 2015. Her third poetry collection, “My Mom Knows the Kind of Things that Happen in Cities,” published by PPM Enklava in 2020, has sold over 12,000 copies, been translated into multiple languages, and was shortlisted for all the most important poetry awards in Serbia, as well as for the regional poetry award Stjepan Gulin. She has participated in writing residencies in various countries.
Małgorzata Lebda
(born in 1985), Poland
Małgorzata Lebda grew up in Żeleźnikowa Wielka, a village in the Beskid Mountains. She is the author of six volumes of poetry, including “Matecznik” (Queen Cells, awarded a Scholarship at Stanisław Barańczak) and “Sny uckermarkerów” (Uckermarker Dreams, awarded at Gdynia Literary Prize). Her most recent poetry book, “Mer de Glace,” has won the “Wisława Szymborska Award” and has been shortlisted for the “Silesius Literary Award.” Her books have been translated into Serbian, Italian, Ukrainian, Czech, and Slovenian. In addition to her literary pursuits, she is a scientist, a columnist, a culture animator, and an ultramarathon runner. In September 2021, she ran a 1113 kilometer distance along the Vistula River to draw attention to the issue of river destruction. Lebda is currently working on her debut prose project and resides in Krakow, regularly embarking on journeys. Her prose debut “Łakome” was published in 2023 and was recently named “Empik Discovery 2023”
Márton Simon
(born in 1984), Hungary
Simon studied Aesthetics, Literature and Creative writing at Pázmány Péter University and later graduated at Károli Gáspár University. He holds a BA and an MA of Japanese Language and Studies. Simon has published four collections of poetry thus far: Songs for 3:45 AM (2010), Polaroids (2013), Fox Wedding (2018) and At Night in the Kitchen I Wanted to Talk to You (2021), and a spoken word mixtape Before You Begin to Speak (2017). He has been the participant of many slam poetry events (since 2011), and a few of the National Championships (2012-2016), as well. He performed in Serbia, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey and Italy, too. He has participated in the Spoke’n’Word Festival in Warsaw (2012, 2014) and the Transpoesie Festival in Brussels (2014). He has translated novels from English (e.g. the works of Jennifer Egan, Etgar Keret, John Waters) and modernist poetry from Japanese (Ryuichi Tamura, Nobuo Ayukawa, Sakutaro Hagiwara and more). In addiiton, he has organized countless workshops for creative writing and other literary events. His poetry collections are in a constant reprint. He is without a doubt one of the most widely read Hungarian authors of the last decade.
Co-financed from the funds of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland