Ars Poetica – Bratislava

Ars Poetica is an annual poetry festival held in Bratislava, Slovakia, featuring some of most interesting poets from around the world for over a decade. I participated in the 2013 festival http://www.arspoetica.sk/

diary of a magic weekend / poetryfest 

So much to admire about the way the festival was run and the poets who attended, and those involved in the program.  The festival has been running for over a decade, and really has established itself through the work of Martin Solotruk, Peter Sulej and others, as a space in which generations mix as much as styles of poetry. All too rare a thing, to see formal poetry readings in translations sitting alongside experimental poetics, electronic poetics and collaborative practise.

DAY ONE: arrived, looked after, sent to the floating hotel, the Botel, on the Danube, with Mariano Peyrou, a Spanish poet who I’ve known about for years but never met. First night reading, I’m 3rd on the 1st night. Before me, two young Bulgarian poets, Nevena Borisov and Ivan Landzhev, who would become friends over the days. My reading was fun, felt very relaxed, took some snaps of the audience while the Slovakian translations of my poems were read by Lubo Bakovy. Post readings there was a space every night for new commissions in innovative poetics. This was the highlight for me, as a viewer, and Zuzana Husarova’s collaboration with video, sound, dance artists, a five piece ensemble, really blew me away.

DAY TWO: Took a tram out into the suburbs of Bratislava and then walked back in. Had two lovely meetings, one with the dynamic people from LitCentrum, that pushes Slovak literature abroad. Then I met the brilliant poet Maria Ferencuhova, who I had over for Camarade last year and wrote with Frances Kruk.

The readings were again quite memorable. Robert Rybek, a Polish poet, front kicked the mic off its stand before cursing out the audience. Kato Djavakhashvili read, all the way from Tbilisi, Tozan Alkan from Istanbul, Gerhard Falkner from Berlin and then the electronic poetry performances – Jorg Piringer was a force of nature with his visual concrete animation soundwork, and Heike Fiedler, a revelation from Switzerland, mixing languages and improvising with great aplomb.

DAY THREE: I walked an hour or two down the Danube before cutting in to the outskirts to visit the Botanical gardens, and then one of the best Zoos Ive ever visited. They had a dinosaur park with animatronic dinosaurs that could only move one appendage. Must have cost a bomb.

Final night of readings, Ville Hytonen! Ive wanted to meet Ville for ages, hearing of his great work through Pekko Kappi, one of the best performers Ive worked with on my events. Daniel Cundari was amazing too. Jason Mashak, an American living in the Czech Republic was great, and Erik Simsik, who seems to be right on the front of the younger avant garde in Slovakia and then Olga Pekova, who created a beautiful, vulnerable / inverted penetrative moment to end the fest with, collaborating with nudity and a boxharp.

The night went on long after the readings, and I stayed, even though I normally don’t. For an undertaking this size, the connections made between the poets were really genuine. I had so many generative conversations with those attending and discovered so much new work from across Europe. I feel like some relationships were the first step into friendships / collaborations / correspondences that might span many years, and so if poetry is the vehicle of that, all the better.