Opening: Nanni Balestrini/ Hansjörg Mayer/ gerhard rühm

With »Nanni Balestrini: For anyone reading ths there is nothing left to fear«, »Hansjörg Mayer: The Smell of Ink« and »soon | just | now. gerhard rühm as intermediapionier«, the first three exhibitions of the »Poetic Expansions« series opened on March 31, 2017, at the ZKM. They show the extensive and diverse poetic and literary work of the artists.

In the 1960s, they were among the artists, who expanded literature around the term of »media«: On the run from letters and their products, books, they dealt poetically with the linearity and materiality of writing, released letters from the force of narration and put them back together again using their own design principles. They resisted the inertia of language and thought and make a crucial contribution to designing the European art world of the 1960s.

On July 27, 2017, the second part of the »Poetic Expansions« series will follow with »Helmut Heißenbüttel: Funkhaus«, »Reinhard Döhl: Alles ist möglich. Alles ist erlaubt«, and »Konrad Balder Schäuffelen: sprache ist fuer wahr ein koerper«. 

Speakers at the opening: 

• Peter Weibel, CEO of ZKM | Karlsruhe
• ​​​​​​Wolfram Jäger, Mayor of the City of Karlsruhe
• Erec Gellautz, curator of the exhibition
• Margit Rosen, curator of the exhibition