What are you reading?
There is so much wonderful literature that touches us as human beings, opens up new worlds and can build bridges. Art is able to awaken empathy in us for previously unknown. It is therefore a staple food of every living society and thus also of our democracy. I love literature with a beautiful, powerful language, such as that of the Georgian author Nino Harativili. Your work “The Eighth Life” is a book of the century for me. I can also immerse myself in the biographies of inspiring women - and I enjoy reading up and down Scandinavian crime novels. Poems and poetry have a very special place for me, from Else Lasker-Schüler to Bert Brecht from Augsburg to Albert Ostermaier, Amanda Gorman and Max Czollek. Fairy tale books are of course indispensable in the Christmas season,I especially like the fairy tales by Hans Christian Andersen. Stories like the one about the "girl with the sulfur sticks" keep bringing tears to my eyes.
What do you see?
First of all: A lot, a lot - and in a wide variety of formats! I love film prizes and the associated festivals: the Berlinale, the Munich Film Festival, the European Film Prize and the Audio Film Prize are among the highlights of my year. I watch as much as possible in order to get to know films from all over the world and completely different film cultures and to constantly confront my own viewing habits with them. When it comes to Chinese or Japanese films, for example, I am fascinated by the visual language and the speed at which films are told. It can be very British on television. The film "The Father" with Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Coleman, for example, is a masterpiece for me. I'm also a big theater fan, that's how it all started with my passion for culture.I like to go to the great Gorki Theater in Berlin, to the Berliner Ensemble or to see what's going on in my home town of Augsburg. By the way, poetry slams are a must for me. Unfortunately, this wonderful format could not take place for a long time due to the pandemic. And of course I always look in museums, in the Hamburger Bahnhof or at exhibitions like those of Olaf Otto Becker or Mehmet Güler. I also really liked “Blue Planet” in the Augsburg Glass Palace, here the destruction of our livelihoods is artistically discussed. It was there that I discovered the breathtaking works of the Czech sculptor and photographer Magdalena Jetelová, among other things. I am always curious about the diversity and richness of our culture in all its facets.So far, unfortunately, far too little of the wonderful diversity of our society has taken up space in cultural discourse, for example people with a migration history, LGBTIQ and women should get more attention. I am already very excited about documenta 15 next year, which is dedicated to a completely new way of working and is curated by a collective of artists and other creative people from Indonesia. And what shouldn't be missing, by the way, is the Dortmund Football Museum, because football is so much more than the 90 minutes on the pitch.which has dedicated itself to a completely new way of working and is curated by a collective of artists and other creative people from Indonesia. And what shouldn't be missing, by the way, is the Dortmund Football Museum, because football is so much more than the 90 minutes on the pitch.which has dedicated itself to a completely new way of working and is curated by a collective of artists and other creative people from Indonesia. And what shouldn't be missing, by the way, is the Dortmund Football Museum, because football is so much more than the 90 minutes on the pitch.