Eröffnung der Europäischen Literaturtage

In his Village Novel (Dorfroman), Christoph Peters returns to a small village in the Lower Rhine, close to the site of a 1970s nuclear power station. He tells the story of a childhood spent in the countryside and the beginnings of the world in which we live today. He perceives Berlin, the metropolis, as the new and familiar life, yet he is sentimentally attached to his parent’s world in the village. Die Zeit called this novel a story of mentality in stages in which, like in many of his books, Christoph Peters portrays a society undergoing radical change.

Lisz Hirn develops an anthropology of vulnerability in her most recent book, The Overrated Man. She takes up the primal question since Plato and still being asked today about what defines man as a human being. The age-old theme of whether and what differentiates man from animals leads her to examine whether and what we might discover about our humanity from machines. Finally, for the metahuman between the smartphone and ChatGPT, she considers whether real places and the history of the mentality of city and country still have any relevance at all?

The author Christoph Peters and the philosopher Lisz Hirn examine the metaphors of the fragmented worlds of our time. Are the images justified of dynamic, tolerant city-dwelling cosmopolitans and the mainly elderly residents left behind in rural areas?

Followed by: City for Everyone

City for Everyone is an urban planning project, which the architect Osamu Okamura set up in the Czech Republic with the illustrators David Böhm and Jiří Franta. The project evolved into the book in 2022, which won the Architectural Book Award, providing children and adults with facts and explanations about the concept of the city. What is the reality of a city in which a growing population is supposed to find space? The book with numerous illustrations explains how the great anthill of humanity works, what opportunities it grants; it also discusses the problems faced by cities today. How must our cities develop for us to live in a shared space in future? The architect Okamura introduces aspects of this project in discussion with the architecture critic, Rowan Moore.

Elit wine will be served to celebrate the opening of the exhibition.

***BIOGRAPHIES***

Lisz Hirn
b. 1984, is an Austrian philosopher. Her specialist interests are in philosophical anthropology, political philosophy and intercultural ethics. Recently published: The Overrated Man. Anthropology of Vulnerability, 2023.

Lisz Hirn brings philosophy into the public domain – fearless, crystal clear and comprehensible for everyone.
Konrad Paul Liessmann

Christoph Peters
b. 1966, is a German author. Since his debut novel City, Country, River in 1999, Christoph Peters, who has earned many accolades, has published novels and short stories describing the tensions of urban and rural life. Recently published: Inner-city Death, 2024.

The village as focal point is a classical literary topos. Probably no author for a considerable time has described that as clear-sighted as Christoph Peters.
Christoph Schröder, Die Zeit

Osamu Okamura
b. 1973, is an architect and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Architecture of the Technical University in Liberec and, among others, curator of the project Shared Cites: Creative Momentum. Publications include: City for Everyone. A Beginner’s Guide to Urbanism, 2022.

Provocatively playful cardboard models, whose material quality reveals a professional touch as well as children’s imagination, make the manual a visual delight. This is not a guide for city tours, but the best urban manual for the whole family.
Hans Ten Doornkaat, NZZ Bücher am Sonntag

Rowan Moore
b. 1961, is a British architecture critic and author. He writes for the Observer and The Guardian and was named Critic of the Year at the UK Press Awards. Publications include: Slow Burn City: London in the Twenty-First Century, 2017.

A political book (Slow Burn City) in the best sense – helping us to imagine a better world, reminding us that ideas shape how we live and plotting a better future for London.
The Telegraph