Poetry@Rubens

Daniela Danz reads from her book "Portolan"

The title refers to medieval nautical charts. From this vantage point, the collection looks at the present: at seas, ports, trade routes, cargo ships, and supply chains. The poems ask what these routes have to do with our everyday lives: with consumption, prosperity, dependence, and what remains invisible on the journey across the sea.
This is countered by a second impulse: contemplation. “Portolan” seeks forms of concentration and contemplation in a world designed for distraction. This creates a tension between the flow of goods and inner stillness, between global movement and the attempt to remain rooted in one place.
An evening about orientation, interconnectedness, and the possibility of not merely being at the mercy of the present.

(Daniela Danz)
Moderator: Prof. Dr. Dieter Schönecker