ralf b. korte
…….
apart from that, a bank robbery, for example, is a real work of art. and you can’t hang it
on your wall in the museum.
norbert knofo kröcher in conversation with ivo bozic, 17.04.03
020814 the other day in prenzlauer berg i heard a text performed
a piece wherein one lets two speak for themselves and it was a bit
of theater, standing and declaiming how cities they don’t belong to
anybody anymore or at least not to you and him there not him
either and not the others talking there either because just like
always some come from somewhere else and suck the heart out
of the city and the language and then war comes or something,
war gladly comes to the cities and the guy that owns the bar
comments that now he really hadn’t quite understood exactly if it’d
been about budagrad or belpest or whatever other agglomerations
otherwise on the way to stambul through the steppes comfort
nicked gone to the dogs, the man always sporting the uboot-shirt.
got a penchant for wine protocolo white as spritzer or no, there’s
still a buffet because that one there, shewrote the text and’ll enjoy
a nice scholarship in constantinople and you quietly wonder if they
were writing there as one coming to a city that doesn’t belong to
them and others there taking something away with their speaking
of another language, their walking with another gait
yah thought this was the strange thing about cities: their
accessibility and the fact that there’re places to meet, to trade or
to withhold stories from each other, these your semi-drunk
reflections, but the text by the one that’s
reading so that the dialogical might seem logical keeps trotting
along plays itself out, smacks too much of a monologue you
mumble quietly to yourself but the pub is filled with sympathizers
that would’ve like to’ve written the text because otherwise she
stands behind the counter, somehow the text seems to deal with
the theme of the kiez or the performance itself is a piece, kiez,
secure or one’s own out in the open that’s easily lost if something
happens for example war or something, something coming
between it all but the text doesn’t tell of good-standing-behind-the-
bar and then writing a text that those in front of it would otherwise
have enjoyed and now also want to enjoy because, well, you
know, this is now an unthreaded sentence
Translated from the German:: Mark Kanak