(P)art  > I AM (meine Freund:innen, der Tumor und die Kunst)

About half a year ago I received an email from Kirsten Helfrich, the artist and curator. She said she had read that I wanted to write a book about my “year in bed” and she wanted to ask me if I would like to take part in a group exhibition at the quadrART art space – it would be all works between literature and visual art. I did like.

The exhibition, titled DIE VERÄNDERUNG EREIGNETE SICH MIT DER HEFTIGEKEIT DES ÜBERGANGS VOM TAG ZUR NACHT (THE CHANGE HAPPENED WITH THE HARDNESS OF THE TRANSITION FROM DAY TO NIGHT  – a text fragment by Marguerite Duras), seemed to me to be an ideal possibility to make a first experience with the book I was just about to start writing (in German).

I said to myself: if my first reading is a success (I get good feedback) I will write the book. If the feedback is lousy, I will thankfully say goodbye to it and concentrate on other things.

Idea was that I lay while I read, as I also layed for a year before anything else, and just allowed (YES!) everything to just happen, related to my multiple myeloma and amyloidosis, and that a graphically informed mattress (I AM) and 30 large handwritten post-its show the working titles of all chapters of the book in extension of this mattress on the wall.

Above the 30 chapter post-its is the working title of the book: MEINE FREUND:INNEN, DER TUMOR UND DIE KUNST (My girlfriends, the tumor and art)

Parallel to the exhibition, quasi as a special catalog, contributions by all participating artists appeared in the literary magazine miromente.

On October 14, I layed on the I AM mattress and read for a good 20 minutes from the first fragments of 9 chapters. I was surprised that so many visitors came (but that also had to do with the fact that Lena Seeberger presented a flip book) and I was happy about a fine applause and good conversations afterwards – so YES I will write the book!
Thank you evening, thank you art commission, thank you tumor commission!