Losing the Plot: Eigene Literaturen
October 29 to November 2 at Flutgraben e.V., Berlin
This fall, Comic Gewerkschaft has something very special for you: one week full of workshops, readings, artist talks and gettogethers.
Under the title “Losing the Plot: Eigene Literaturen”, we will explore the intersections, transitions and gray areas between comics, theater, radio plays, poetry, prose and other more or less scenic art forms. In free workshops held by our special guests, participants will get to write dialogs, develop scenographies and design sound. Additionally we will be hosting evening events like readings and artist talks on questions of storytelling, translating, publishing and work.
Once summer ends, clean genres and classic narrative forms will be a thing of the past! Time for our own, strange literatures! Let's let loose, let's lose the plot!
Workshops
Our workshops are free of charge, they run from 10 am to 5 pm on two days and are a great opportunity to get a taste of new artistic fields, whether you come from the world of comics, theatre, literature or other fields.Registrations are closed. Confirmations of participation will be sent out from October 13.
What Does The Tarot Say?
Dialog-workshop with Cécil Joyce Röski on Oct 29 and 30
Daily from 10 am to 5 pm.
Language: German (English if required).
We write from the gut, the dream, the loop. We let characters emerge from fragments, sniffing each other out, clashing, missing the mark. We place our sentences into other mouths and watch what happens.
In this workshop, we explore dialogue writing as a way of playing with the unconscious. The tarot helps us access sentences, themes, and images that serve as a starting point for our texts. Through different exercises, we tap into the group’s collective memory and draw on each other’s voices as fuel for the writing process. Short inputs on dialogue are followed by shared and individual writing phases. The workshop is a space for playful, collective and associative experimentation.
Cécil Joyce Röski (he/they) is a transradical writer living in the countryside of Saxony-Anhalt. He studied Creative Writing in Leipzig. In 2023, his debut novel Poussi (Hoffmann und Campe) was published, along with the historical punk web series Haus Kummerveldt (arte/ARD). He writes queer, class-conscious stories that flirt with magical realism, power and precarity. His work explores dream logic, body politics and the quiet resilience of outsiders who build soft spheres in broken worlds.
What Holds Us Together?
Scenography-workshop with Julia Gerke on Oct 30 and 31
Daily from 10 am to 5 pm.
Language: German (English if required).
What does it mean to support something or someone - spatially, materially, structurally, artistically? In this workshop, we will approach scenography as a practice of support: together we will create a temporary setting that opens up space for readings, performances, talks and sound and enables sensitive, collaborative spatial production.
Support is understood as an important personal, political and creative dimension: What holds, carries, connects in the background? Which relationships arise between media, voices, themes - and what lies in between? How can spaces be created that enable openness, recognise diversity and question hierarchies?
In her artistic practice Julia Gerke moves between different formats (sculpture, installation, architecture, scenography, platform, conversation, text, sound) and combines a range of activities (exhibiting, inviting, linking, selecting, organising, assembling, building). She understands her artistic practice as a position in support (of something/someone). Her work explores different forms of sharing and examines support as an important personal and political dimension through which we understand and shape the world. Her artistic work takes on different material forms – sometimes she stands for herself, invites other voices or simply supports something or someone through her material presence. Because in one way or another, we all need support.
The Sound Of Panel
Sound-workshop with Bär Kittelmann on Oct 31 and Nov 1
Daily from 10 am to 5 pm.
Language: German (English if required).
What does a panel sound like? Whether drawing or reading, comics are often seen as a solitary experience: quiet, introspective, on paper. But in readings or other performative formats, this dynamic shifts fundamentally and the sound of the pages comes to the fore. In the 2-day workshop The Sound Of Panel, we will focus on the translation of image and text into sound.
The addition of a sound layer can help to create an even more immersive moment. We will experiment together: How can atmosphere be built up? Which sounds reinforce certain panel moments? How do emotions, movements or... silence sound? We will develop our own first sequences by exchanging ideas with each other and using various tools.
Bär Kittelmann is an interdisciplinary artist, currently focussing on sound and graphic design, as well as illustration. He radically prioritises fun and is not interested in the rules and limits of artistic design. He is much more interested in recognising and acknowledging these and ultimately breaking them. A playful, cross-genre style is key to his artistic practice. The main themes of his work include questions of intimacy and gender beyond (white) cis-heteronormative ideas of life.
Evening events
We are also looking forward to four evening events that can be attended without prior registration.
Koma – Cruising in Theater, Comic und Übersetzung
Reading and talk with Leonie Ott and Jeffrey Trehudic on Oct 30
from 7 pm
Koma is based on a theater text by Mazlum Nergiz, in which the author sends his nameless narrator on a tour de force about queer sexuality in the form of a lucid, feverish monologue. In the comic adaptation, the protagonist is once again sent on this journey by comic artist Leonie Ott, this time into a world of images. Since March 2024, he has now embarked on his journey into the unknown for the third time and, in the translation by Jeffrey Trehudic, lets his thoughts flow in French. The artists want to give you an insight into the comic and their collaboration, which is based on friendship and trust.
Language: German.
Moderated by Eva Gräbeldinger.
Admission on a donation basis.
Together für besser
Open gettogether with Comic Gewerkschaft on Oct 31
from 6 pm
This event is open to anyone who works in comics, theatre or literature in the broadest sense, with or without formal education in the sector. Anyone who is active in neighbouring fields of art or works in an interdisciplinary way is just as welcome. We invite you to a relaxed exchange about working and living conditions in and in between the various creative sectors. We want to understand the similarities and differences between work in different sectors, consider possibilities for solidarity and facilitate longer-term networking.
Language: German and English, depending on the needs of the participants.
The meeting will be moderated by members of Comic Gewerkschaft. Admission is free and no pre-booking is necessary.
1pp1 Book #2
Release-conzert and talk with 1pp1 on Oct 31
from 8:30 pm
With a performative concert, 1pp1 present their second book, which focuses on the right-wing shift, fascization, Christian nationalism and the rise of authoritarianism. They address these political issues with the means of poetry and experimental literature. 1pp1 is an intergenerational performance group that works with an onion principle: The inner onion invites friends and collaborators to be represented in the volume as the outer onion. The book is part of a series of poetry collections whose texts often have connections to other media, such as songs, drawings or film. The books are bound with clothesline and can be carried over the shoulder like a handbag.
The performative concert will be held in German, English and Chinese. The subsequent artist talk will be in German.
Moderated by Chiny Udeani.
Admission on a donation basis.
Gaza in My Phone
reading and talk with Mazen Kerbaj on Nov 1
from 8 pm
Mazen Kerbaj is a Lebanese comics author, visual artist, and musician born in Beirut in 1975. He also works on selective illustration and design projects and has taught at the American University of Beirut. Kerbaj is the author of 15 books translated into more than ten languages and his work has been shown in galleries, museums and art fairs around the world. He is widely considered as one of the initiators and key players of the Lebanese free improvisation and experimental music scene. As a trumpet player, he pushes the boundaries of the instrument beyond recognition.
His latest book, Gaza in My Phone, collects the drawings made in response to the ongoing campaign on Gaza, termed genocidal by Amnesty International, chronicling and responding to the harrowing day-to-day news and testimonies, and capturing the destructive capacity and monumental pain that humans are capable of inflicting on each other.
Language: English.
Moderated by Nino Bulling.
Admission on a donation basis.
Graphic design: Stefanie Leinhos.
LOSING THE PLOT is funded by the Berliner Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhalt.