Ingeborg Bachmann’s 99th birthday

 

Ingeborg Bachmann would have been 99 years old on 25 June 2025. To honour this occasion, we invite you to a birthday celebration and offer guided tours through the exhibition Ingeborg Bachmann ‘I only exist when I write’, which is on display at the Museum Casa di Goethe until 31 August.

17.00 Guided tour in German language

18.00 Birthday reception

19.00 Guided tour in Italian language

 

In collaboration with

 

Images: Exhibition view © Andrea Veneri; Ingeborg Bachmann as a clown, mid-1930s © Bachmann Family Archive Matthias Bachmann

On the occasion of the exhibition Ingeborg Bachmann “Ich existiere nur, wenn ich schreibe”, at the Museum Casa di Goethe until 31 August.

 

Two committed voices of Italian and German literature present texts by Ingeborg Bachmann: Ilaria Gaspari (*1986) and Annabelle Hirsch (*1986) read from letters, reportages and excerpts from works that have influenced their own literary work.
The dialogue will focus on the question of what relevance Bachmann’s work still has today – particularly with regard to topics such as feminism, identity and language. How do Bachmann’s texts influence contemporary literature? What impulses does she give today’s female authors?
In an open exchange, Gaspari and Hirsch shed light on the complexity of Bachmann’s work and open up new perspectives on her writing – an evening between literary homage and critical reflection.

The event will take place in Italian and German language.

 

Ilaria Gaspari studied philosophy at the Scuola Normale in Pisa and at the Sorbonne in Paris. Among her books, translated into several languages: Lezioni di felicità. Esercizi filosofici per il buon uso della vita (Einaudi 2019), Vita segreta delle emozioni (Einaudi 2021), A Berlino con Ingeborg Bachmann (Perrone 2022), La reputazione (Guanda 2024). She has produced podcasts dedicated to Marcel Proust (Chez Proust, Emons 2022) and to Ingeborg Bachmann (Bachmann, Emons 2023).

 

Annabelle Hirsch is of German and French origin and studied History of Art, Theatre and Philosophy in Paris and Munich. She works as a journalist for Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, ZeitOnline and other magazines and has published short stories and literary translations from French. In addition to Il piatto (Corbaccio), she has published Una storia delle donne in 100 oggetti. She lives in Rome and Berlin.

In collaboration with

 

Event on the occasion of the current exhibition at the Museum Casa di Goethe Ingeborg Bachmann “I only exist when I write”

“Fascism is the first thing in the relationship between a man and a woman” says Ingeborg Bachmann in Gerda Haller’s documentary film from 1973 (featured entirely in the exhibition). In fact, the relationship between man and woman was a recurring theme for the Austrian writer, which she explored in many of her works. It is often about gender roles, the exploitation of power relations, infidelity, abandonment, but also about the search for autonomy and a new female self-confidence.
During the event, the Italian actress Simonetta Solder will read selected texts by Ingeborg Bachmann on the relationship between the sexes and on feminism – from Im Himmel und auf Erden to Undine geht and Malina, thus bringing us closer to an important aspect of the Austrian writer.

Simonetta Solder (*Klagenfurt) is a trained translator and actress. After studying in Vienna, she attended the HB Studio in New York and the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago. In the theatre she worked with Giorgio Pressburger, Israel Horovitz and Francesca Comencini, and also took part in The Walks by Rimini Protokoll. Together with director Paola Rota and musician Teho Teardo, she worked on the theatre project Illegal Helpers by Maxi Obexer and directed the theatre lecture Gertrude, Lucia e le altre. Le donne del rivoluzionario Manzoni by and with Eleonora Mazzoni and Il fu Mattia Pascal with Giorgio Marchesi at Teatro Ghione. Her theatre translations include the American playwright Israel Horovitz, Roland Schimmelpfennig, Robert Woelfl, Kevin Rittberger, Azar Mortazavi and Bernhard Studlar. As an actress, she has appeared in TV and cinema productions directed by Giacomo Campiotti, Giacomo Battiato, Riccardo Milani, Marco Tullio Giordana, Ivan Cotroneo and Michele Soavi.

In collaboration with

OPENING: 12.3.2025, 7 p.m.

Introduction:

Gregor H. Lersch, director of the Museum Casa di Goethe

Teresa Indjein, director of the Forum Austriaco di Cultura Roma

Andreas Krüger, head of cultural affairs of the German Embassy Rome

Massimiliano Smeriglio, councillor for culture of Roma Capitale

Exhibition 13.3. – 31.8.2025

She is an icon of 20th century literary history and inspires readers worldwide to this day: Ingeborg Bachmann (1926-1973). The extensive exhibition shows her life and work and focuses on the places that shaped her: the Klagenfurt of her childhood, the Vienna of her early fame, Munich, Zurich,
Berlin and, again and again, Rome. Books and documents are presented, alongside her relationships with Max Frisch, Henry Kissinger and Marie Luise Kaschnitz, as well as numerous photographs from all phases of the life of the equally self-confident and vulnerable writer.

An exhibition of the Literaturhaus München and the Literaturmuseum of the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek in collaboration with the Museum Casa di Goethe

                      

 

With kindkly support of Forum Austriaco di Cultura Roma