Friederike Mayröcker’s life in objects: probably the most poetic storage condominium in Vienna

Finally, your individual life was overtaken by work. Notes, drawings and objects recognized as poetic creations have been collected in Friederike Mayröcker’s condominium on Zentagasse in Vienna. In the course of all the things is the poet, all the time writing. Early within the morning and in addition at night time. Typically the writing went previous the paper. Then adopted the world’s unconscious writing on the sheets of her personal mattress.

Friederike Mayröcker died in 2021 at an outdated age, and her property is a veritable mountain of artwork. The supplies that are actually within the literary archive of the Austrian Nationwide Library are saved in massive containers 450. The exhibition within the Vienna Literary Museum, “‘I believe in gradual flashes’ – Friederike Mayröcker. Poet of the century,” now unpacking these containers. It exhibits what the poet referred to as “flora” and writing filled with “obstinate brilliance.”

The black life

The small moveable typewriters with which Mayröcker wrote her 120 books stand on a number of meters of cabinets. Favourite model: Hermes Child. With no sharp S, the SZ turned first an emergency answer after which a trademark. Suhrkamp’s writer Siegfried Unseld protested for a very long time, however lastly accepted this oddity within the printed picture of the texts. This meant that the Viennese writer had actually reached Suhrkamp.

She wrote and wrote. In works that had trendy ideas, in poems and within the soup books referred to as “cahier”. Mayröcker’s manuscripts are battlefields of concepts. Pens and lighting of various colours clashed with what was typed on the pages “my coronary heart, my room, my title” or “The Farewells,” however the battle to complete was organized just for a short while. Nothing is closing right here.

“In reality, my very own biography follows me like a shadow,” Mayröcker as soon as mentioned, thus coping with an ontological paradox. What was unhappy for the poet, was not the world of parallel writing, however the life she lived. Realizing this adjustments the way you have a look at the images within the present. Little one Friederike Mayröcker with pageboy coiffure standing on garden, bouquet of flowers in hand. A number of photos from nation holidays. Or the very late poet. When she was nicely into her nineties, she wore a denim jacket with darkish sun shades like a pop star.

Mayröcker spoke of a “airtight childhood,” a “balloon childhood,” as a result of her dad and mom protected her early on from something that might be harmful due to sickness. The grandfather’s protecting farm in Deinzendorf, Decrease Austria, turned a parallel and different world within the first 12 months of life after which much more so throughout the conflict. When a dynasty of Viennese delicatessen retailers suffered an financial downturn, the courtroom disappeared, and this tough expertise turned a device of reminiscence.

The phrase “Deinzendorf” is Mayröcker’s cipher for the primary state of poetry, for match on this planet that her literature exhibits on each web page. The expansion within the poet’s cosmos and the silent conversations with issues additionally come from landscapes like this. Friederike Mayröcker hated longer journeys. Nonetheless, if the world was passing by means of inside their very own partitions, that was a novel scenario.

Witness instantly

Within the fingers of the poet, the banal is reworked into artwork. On the packaging of a pair of microfiber tights she writes: “It ought to be 1 everlasting day ‘like within the hymn guide’.” On a paper plate he says: “However I can not discover many reminiscences anymore. END.” Contained in the chocolate field it says: “O Illusion, with violets and lightning.” Friederike Mayröcker works with sudden proof, with poetic lightning strikes that may be tough to symbolize in an exhibition like this within the Vienna Literary Museum. Nonetheless, a bit of extra confidence would not damage. Relating to many photos of life, the catalog is nice.

On show within the exhibition is the long-lasting faculty board from Mayröcker’s condominium, which says in chalk: “Every little thing is TABOO right here”, in addition to a small assortment of Snoopys plush toys, the heraldic animal of the guide “Fantom Fan” (“devoted to the concept SNOOPY »). There are data from the property and lots of different flat items. Letters from the writer, manuscript pages and at the least among the enticing photos. Picture of Mayröcker’s associate Ernst Jandl as a stick determine, an orange “horse quiver” or a “probability assembly” of two halves of bread that seem like faces, captured first by an image after which in an image. In a single image, a girl attracts a coronary heart vivid purple with legs behind it says: “dropped at the curb.”

A “tyrant” named Demise

The tremolo of affection defines a piece that appears for and finds fetishes all over the place. Such “conduct” was omnipresent within the cosmos of Mayröcker’s life, and maybe extra consideration might have been paid to this “tough, boxed flag” when taking out the archive containers for the show. Touched by the poet’s hand, the banal grows past itself. Messie’s condominium on Zentagasse in Vienna was one large poem made up of objects. A writing through which Friederike Mayröcker herself was a component and to which materials was usually added. Tangible and intangible. Medication and music containers, laundry baskets filled with notes and Pentecostal experiences.

For nearly all her life, the poet attracted protecting spirits, angelic beings, however they may not shield her from the “tyrant” referred to as dying. Mayröcker labored till shortly earlier than her dying in June 2021. The Büchner Prize winner, who noticed writing and life as vessels of communication and all the time wished to dwell to be outdated, couldn’t be lived to see her a centesimal birthday this 12 months. “Do not put only one flower on my new grave / Do not wreath my head palm with pine fingers,” she as soon as wrote. Maybe the literary world will put one thing greater than only a vivid flower on the poet’s grave for her centenary in December.

“I believe in gradual flashes” – Friederike Mayröcker. the poet of the century. Austrian Nationwide Library Literary Museum. Till February 16, 2025. Catalog 35 euros.