Bettina Spoerri and Iris Keller
Photo: Miklós Klaus Rózsa
Bettina Spoerri, *1968, studied German literature, philosophy and musicology in Zurich, Paris and Berlin and gained a doctorate in literature. She is a freelance author, cultural mediator, lecturer and curator and was head of the Aargau House of Literature until the beginning of 2022. Her debut novel, ‘Konzert für die Unerschrockenen’ (Vienna, Braumüller), was published in 2013. In 2016, she won an award for her story ‘Schneller als Licht’ (Zurich, SJW). Following her second novel ‘Herzvirus’ (Vienna, Braumüller 2016), two books of literary reportage (‘Zürich abseits der Pfade’, ‘Budapest abseits der Pfade’, ibid., 2019 / 2020) and the anthology ‘Schwellenzeit’ (Midas, Zurich 2020), curated by her and Anne Wieser with texts on the pandemic by authors from all over the world, have been published to date. She has received several prizes for her literary writing, including a year of work from the Canton of Zurich for her third novel project. In her artistic work, she deals with facts/fiction and interfaces between literature, music, photography and film.
Phto: Oliver Klauser
Iris Keller (*1988 D-Ulm) is a director, author and performer. She studied BA European Studies / Cultural Studies and BA Contemporary Puppet Theatre in France and Germany. Since graduating in 2015, she has been working as a freelance artist and has brought numerous contemporary puppet theatre projects to stages in Switzerland, Germany and France. Iris Keller is a founding member of the theatre collectives Kompanie 1/10 and puls_de_kern. 2017 Young Talent Award of the City of Ulm for her directing and writing work ‘Durch die Nacht mit’. 2018 writer in residence in Vechta and subsequent book publication, travelogue with Verd and tour with scenic reading of the same name. Since 2019 Head of Literature Education for Children GGG City Library Basel.
Project
Becoming a whale
Last summer, I became a whale. My feet grew fins, my body turned firm and round. Standing up became a grotesque act.
I actually just wanted to write about how I became a sea creature. But gradually, I realised that you can’t write about whales without writing about their extinction.
I can’t write about becoming a mother either: there are always the taboos attached to motherhood.
Walwerdung speaks of women’s bodies. Of water. Of metamorphoses. Of beauty ideals. Of plankton. Of anger. About what we want to pass on to our children.
The text becomes the basis for a performance with contemporary puppet theatre. Through the exchange in the mentoring programme, a form is defined and a perspective for implementation is explored.
Extract from a final thesis
