Ferdinand Schmatz
Ferdinand Schmatz, Vienna, 28 November 2023
“Do I poeticize in words when I think?”
“I can’t place myself at the center,” says Ferdinand Schmatz. And even so: he is undoubtedly a central author of Austrian literature. “Schmatz’s sophisticated poetry leads word by word, verse by verse to the limits of what language is capable of unlocking and capturing,” reads the jacket blurb of his 2022 book STRAND DER VERSE LAUF. In the conversation here, this poet and analyst of language portrays such liminal excursions in light of his engagement with populist slogans, his collaborative activities with the artist Heimo Zobernig, and his life-long dialogs with important avant-garde literary voices like Oswald Wiener and Reinhard Priessnitz. How do thinking and writing, word and image interrelate? And what does it mean to translate words into words?
“Do I poeticize in words when I think?”
“I can’t place myself at the center,” says Ferdinand Schmatz. And even so: he is undoubtedly a central author of Austrian literature. “Schmatz’s sophisticated poetry leads word by word, verse by verse to the limits of what language is capable of unlocking and capturing,” reads the jacket blurb of his 2022 book STRAND DER VERSE LAUF. In the conversation here, this poet and analyst of language portrays such liminal excursions in light of his engagement with populist slogans, his collaborative activities with the artist Heimo Zobernig, and his life-long dialogs with important avant-garde literary voices like Oswald Wiener and Reinhard Priessnitz. How do thinking and writing, word and image interrelate? And what does it mean to translate words into words?