My new poetry collection “Lava. Rituale” released on May 28th 2023 with kookbooks Berlin.
More info https://www.instagram.com/rikescheffler/
„Die vorliegenden Gedichte sind Roadmaps, Archive aus einer Zukunft, von der ich (teils) gern ein Teil wäre. Spekulative, fragmentarische Zeugnisse neuer und zärtlicherer Seinsweisen, Zeugnisse artenübergreifender Kommunikation und Allianz, die als Echos zu uns in die Gegenwart schallen. Mit jedem Zyklus im Band geht es tiefer in diese Zukünftigkeit hinein; körperliche, sinnliche und auch morphologische Transformationen werden spürbar. In ‚Wasser werden‘ erkundet ein Ich über mimetisch-klangliche Ebenen die eigene, aufregende Verbundenheit mit anderem wässrigen Leben. Es lernt die filigranen Bewegungen von Phytoplankton, suhlt sich mit chinesischen Wasserbüffeln im Schlamm. Das folgende Kapitel ‚bergen‘ verortet sich in einer Zeit, in der humane und nicht-humane Entitäten gemeinsam in symbiotischen Koexistenzen leben; die Globalisierung und die Technologisierung der Welt sind weit vorangeschritten, die fatalen klimatischen Konsequenzen gegenwärtiger menschlicher Lebensweisen treten offen zutage. Hier sammelt und pflegt ein menschliches Ich verzweifelt, liebevoll und widerständig, was es angesichts eines drohenden Untergangs umso stärker behüten will: seelische Verfasstheiten, Wassermelonenlippen, ebenso Kristalle, Sapphos Fragmente, massenhaft Sauerstoff, schließlich die im Wort ‚Brot‘ sedimentierte Menschheitsgeschichte selbst. Jenseits von binär-diskriminierendem Denken, von Utopie und Dystopie, bewegt sich Lava. Rituale tief im queeren, somatischen Dazwischen. Dort liegt, verankert in Handlung und Un-handlung, eine mögliche Welt. Handlinien verflüchtigen sich zu Horizonten, schmelzen dahin. Und trotzdem gelangt ein Ich zu neuen Sinnen, rappelt sich auf, wird (wieder) Körper, Wesen, Wir. Landschaften, Wind und dunkle Tiere sind hier Partner:innen, die Fragen beantworten, welche wir uns als Menschen gerade erst zu stellen wagen. Gemeinsam finden wir Rituale, üben wir uns in Revolution.“
You can order it here:
https://kookbooks.de/products/rike-scheffler-lava-rituale-gedichte
And read a review (in German) here:
Trying to catch up with the whirlwind of touring and performing that was 2019.
This pic was taken during last year’s Bagaluru Poetry Festival.
Photo Credit: Senthil Kumar
for Being You India © 2019
Here is the link to the full interview - where I am talking about the power of poetry & performance art, about my coming out & LGBTQIA+ rights situations around the globe.
Let’s see and take care of each other, as humxns.
https://www.facebook.com/beingyou17/posts/856548268077798?comment_id=856632761402682
Sonic Ecosystem “Becoming Water”
@ Palais de Tokyo, Paris
as a part of the Exhibition "La Voix Libérée - Poésie sonore"
Take a listen to “Becoming Water” here:
https://soundcloud.com/vizir-radio/scheffler-rike-becoming-water-2019?in=vizir-radio/sets/la-voix-liberee-exposition-au
“Becoming Water“ is a sonic ecosystem created by me, in collaboration with songwriter and recording artist CROOK and sound virtuoso Horst Körner. It was completed and mixed in Sept. 2018 at the MGB Studio at Funkhaus Berlin, with field recordings of water, my voice, and digital effects being its only sound sources. “Becoming Water“ is a piece in which the listeners can immerse themselves into compelling soundscapes of water in its different states of matter and discover their own voices within the choirs of other watery beings.
Conceptually, it describes a full circle: Inspired by nature, but through the help of human-made technology, the human voice is able to sound like, be, and become nature again.
Though in it, this voice is no longer separable, distinguishable or even in the center of attention, but rather blending in an out of the age-old ecosystems of this planet, some of them being endangered, and all of them being delicately connected to each other. It is this interconnectedness of all of the living that is the beating heart of this piece. In it, the utopia of a peaceful co-existence of multiple species, all of the Earth’s diverse watery beings, be- comes possible, almost tangible, felt.
“La Voix Libérée - Poésie sonore” opens at Palais de Tokyo Paris, March 21st! Come join us in PARIS!!
The exhibition “La Voix Libérée - Poésie sonore” is curated by Eric Mangion and Patrizio Peterlini in co-production with Bonotto Fondation. It is open from March 22st until May 12th 2019, and offers, without any nostalgia, a journey of artistic voices of the past and the present who use words and sounds as an exercise in freedom.
My sound installation “Becoming Water” will be shown along works of fellow artists and poets like Tomomi Adachi, Caroline Bergvall, Augusto De Campos, Robert Filliou, Steven J. Fowler, Zuzana Husárová, Jörg Piringer, Gerhard Rühm and many others. All the works by historic artists are from the collection Luigi Bonotto.
**
..Aaand more NEW STUFF!
“A Glas of Water”
A Solo Performance Set I did for the kook.mono Festival @ Ausland Berlin, Sept 2018.
Here’s a little info about it all:
As one of the most important building blocks of life, water is charged with multi-faceted human narratives of transformation, spirituality and mortality. It is also linked to its own exploitation by humans and the most visible and tangible impact of climate disruption: floods, drought and rising sea levels, to name a few.
In „A Glass of Water“ poet, performer and artist Rike Scheffler explores the potentials of a post-human feminist position and how to rethink and re-establish our relationships with our own kinds and kins and our watery others. By letting the waters speak for themselves while trying to learn their multiple languages, she invites everyone to interact with bodies of water from all around the world.
kook.mono Festival was a project by KOOK e.V.
Video © Mirko Lux.
Mit freundlicher Unterstützung des Hauptstadtkulturfonds. Präsentiert von taz. die tageszeitung, Merkur – Deutsche Zeitschrift für europäisches Denken und fixpoetry.
This one was FUN! For you to enjoy:
A Performance Video of “Ludwigsburger Flugblätter”
© Rike Scheffler & Claudio Puntin
We were playing with the pamphlets & sounds of baroque kings, historic objects, poets and public voices alike, all of them deeply rooted in the city of Ludwigsburg, Germany.
What you’ll see is what happened live - one 27min long remix, presented by us during the “Long Night of Poetry” at the Akademie für Darstellende Kunst Baden-Württemberg,
Oct. 19th, 2018.
We got ask to write this one by the City’s official cultural institution.. THANK YOU A LOT!!
**
“Ludwigsburger Flugblätter”
© Rike Scheffler & Claudio Puntin
Eine Arbeit im Auftrag der Stadt Ludwigsburg, im Rahmen des Stadtschreiberstipendiums 2018, aus Anlass der 35. Baden-Württembergischen Literaturtage 2018 in Ludwigsburg.
Remix der Flugblätter, Gedichte & Dekrete Herzog Eberhard Ludwigs, Herzog Karl Eugens, Eduard Mörikes, Rike Schefflers, der Firma Heinrich Franck Söhne sowie der Zitate vieler Ludwigsburger*innen.
Kamera & Schnitt: Arkadij Khaet & Mickey Paazsch
Tontechnik: Horst Körner, MGB Studios Berlin
Up for a little time travel? This one zooms you and me right back to 2016,
when I was performing at Louisiana Literature Festival :)
Over the last weeks and months lucky me got to travel a lot. It all started with the continuation of the A-B-A-B-A workshop series in #addisababa where I #reunited with my favorite fellow #poets and #musicians to present a new #poetryjazzprogram at the #rashotel .
We had the kindest audience you can imagine, some travelled far to see the show. While performing and rehearsing, we created our own little community of artists and people from all over the world, despite of a tense political situation.
#citizensoftheart #citizensoftheheart #moredemocracy #morepoetry #institutfürraumexperimente #turn #thesituationisfluid
I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Frauke Oppenberg for the Radio Series “SWR2 Tandem”. Frauke and I had fun talking about the confining nature of definitions, about poetry without borders, politics and music :)
Here is the link to the full interview.
https://swrmediathek.de/player.htm?show=b87f8870-9e1f-11e7-a5ff-005056a12b4c
It’s in german, everyone …
(pic: Valerie Schmidt)
“A Matter of Turning” – Rike performing live @ Festival of Future Nows
@ Hamburger Bahnhof Museum für Gegenwart – Berlin
„A Matter of Turning“ is playing with the endless, almost eerie acoustics of the Hamburger Bahnhof’s main hall. During the performance, the former train station is transformed into a place of travel again. Visitors and listeners are invited to dwell in the unfamiliar clearing in the heart of the Festival’s woods, to become a part of spacial, non-linear loopscapes of poetry, narrations of identity and community, letting melodies and sounds move freely, depart and return.
Thanks a thousand times to all who came and sang along.
I am very much looking forward to another Now with you in the Future.
much Love, R
Photo © Yero Adugna Eticha
