I Come from the Ruins – The Launch of Berlin Review Reader 4
With contributions by Sim Chi Yin, Eric Otieno Sumba, Sandra Hetzl, Claudia Durastanti and Berlin Review

3 July, 19:00-21:30
Panel and reading, free admission

“I am a force of the past, I come from the ruins,” Pier Paolo Pasolini once wrote when he defended tradition and memory against brutal modernization. Today, when contemporary history is being written by new ruins, the question of historical truth and the power of definition is more pressing than ever.

Berlin Review was founded in February 2024 as a new magazine for books and ideas. Published in Berlin and aimed at the world, it has since published a mixture of political essays, cultural criticism and literary reportage.

To mark the launch of Reader 4 at Klosterruine Berlin, the Berlin Review team is curating an evening of readings and discussions. Sim Chi Yin, author and photographer from Malaysia, presents her documentary work on the remnants of British colonial rule in her home country, which illustrates the reader. Eric Otieno Sumba takes a look at another scene of particularly violent colonial oppression: the Congo, whose independence from Belgium was accompanied by the brutal murder of Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba. Sandra Hetzl will read from her translations of Arabic-language poets living in the ruins of Gaza. Claudia Durastanti from Rome will talk about her essay “Fascism Fatigue” and the unhealthy cultural fascination with fascism in contemporary culture.

19:00 Panel: Der goldene Zahn on the visual language of decolonial struggles in Malaysia and Congo with Sim Chi Yin and Eric Otieno Sumba, moderated by Eliana Kirkcaldy

20:00 Reading: Bücher verbrennen in Gaza with Sandra Hetzl, moderated by Emily Nill

20:30 Reading Fascism Fatigue with Claudia Durastanti, followed by a discussion, moderated by Tobias Haberkorn