First poetry reading, together with
Michael Horovitz, in Bochum in '69.
Edited TOUCH, a small literary
and film journal (with Steven Diamant) in the late '60s. Its section on
the Independent Italian Cinema, included in issue # 3-4, 1969, was reprinted
by the LONDON FILM FESTIVAL, thanks to Massimo Bacigalupo... There were
also articles on a film by Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet
(the Chronique of Anna Magdalena Bach),
a long interview with Stan
Brakhage (by P.Adams Sitney), an article by Georg Rudolf Lind on Pessoa,
poetry in diverse languages, accompanied by translations into English...
Later on, wrote frequently on the filmic work of J.-M. Straub and Danièle
Huillet, much of it unpublished but forwarded to the Straubs (own versions
largely lost).
Excerpts of his film criticism
(on Dore O. and on Massimo Bacigalupo) are published online by CANYON CINEMA,
INC. (San Francisco) and the NEW YORK FILMMAKERS' COOPERATIVE... And on
Pia Epremian (in print) by BIANCO E NERO, and other stuff elsewhere...
Edited JIETOU / STREET in Taiwan
in the '70s which featured articles on Yao Yi-Wei's play, A Suitcase,
on the poet Yang Kwei, several articles on the Cloud Gate Dance Theater,
etc. Held many talks on the NEW GERMAN CINEMA (Fassbinder, Costard, Wenders,
Dore O. etc.) at the Deutsches Kulturzentrum / Deguo Wenhua Zhongxin in
Taipei and at the Taida Film Club (Tien Center, Roosevelt Rd., Taipei)...
Wrote pieces of film criticism
for INFLUENCE, a film magazine edited by Ivan Wang, and for ARTIST MAGAZINE...
Correspondence with several poets (Barbara Guest whose poetry was translated in the 70s, Anne Waldman, several others; with Cid Corman for several decades, practically until he died).
Contributed poems to anthologies
(UND ICH BEWEGE MICH DOCH, ed. by Juergen Theobaldy (Munich [Beck Verlag]
1977); AIQING DE GUSHI - 300 DEUTSCHE LIEBESGEDICHTE, Beijing 1998...);
CRITICA DEL NOVECENTO / CRITICIZING THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, ed. by Massimo
Bacigalupo and Anna Lucia Giavotto (Genova [Tilgher] 2001).
And to several art catalogues,
for instance:
Wo bleibst du, Revolution. Freiheit
Gleichheit Bruederlichkeit heute. 1789-1989, ed. by Peter Spielmann (Bochum
[Museum Bochum] 1989. And: Doris Schoettler-Boll/Dekonstruktionen oder
vom Widersprechen in Bildern, ed. by Klaus Honnef, Cologne (Rheinland Verlag
and Landesmuseum Bonn) 1987.
Poems have again and again been
published in various poetry journals (among them Juergen Theobaldy's BENZIN;
Mike Dobbie's STREET WORD; the KONKURSBUCH etc.).
Wrote a long poem on 'Moses and
Aaron' (the film by J.-M. Straub & Danièle Huillet) which Jean-Marie
translated & published, in German and French, in an issue of the CAHIERS
DE CINÉMA...
Having read the ms. of Gedichte
aus einem dunklen Land (then still unpublished), Erich Fried
wrote (in 1981), "Ich habe schon seit langer Zeit nicht mehr Gedichte gesehen
(unveroeffentlichte oder neuerdings veroeffentlichte), die ich fuer so
gut und so wichtig halte. Ich meine wichtig, weil sie unsere nicht nur
literarische Landschaft bereichern. Dichten ist nicht so sehr eine literarische
wie eine menschliche Betaetigung."
And Peter Marcuse called his poems
"clear, sharp, and didactic" after reading the ms. of Gedichte aus einem
dunklen Land.
In a letter Juergen Theobaldy recalled
that, in a conversation, "Nicolas Born called him (...) a 'naturally gifted
lyrical poet' [ein geborener Lyriker]" (quoted by W.Fang).
Several small volumes of poetry
have appeared or are due to appear, most of them published by SYMPOSIUM
PRESS, a small publisher in Rotterdam and Aachen.. Check (online) catalogues
of Deutsche Bibliothek (Frankfurt) and of Koninklijke Bibliotheek (Den
Haag).
SHORT BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE (Oct. 2000)
So, who am I? A poet? or rather, somebody writing poetry (amongst other
things)? Age 56, born in Germany, male. Taught modern German literature
in Taiwan in the seventies. Later, briefly, at the Dept. of German of the
Ruhr University in Bochum (Germany). Did introductions to exhibitions (of
art works by Eu-Nim Ro, Angelo Evelyn, Peter Lacroix, Axel Guhlmann, Willi
Seeba, Doris Schöttler-Boll...), wrote some art criticism, but more
frequently, film criticism (on films by Sara Driver, Jean-Marie Straub
& Danièle Huillet, Dore O., Hellmut Costard, Paul Sharits, Steve
Dwoskin, Gregory Markopoulos, Pia Epremian, Massimo Bacigalupo, Werner
Nekes, Tony Morgan, Akira Kurosawa, R.W. Faßbinder...) Strongly believe
in "communicating tubes" between the arts, between art and everyday life,
between reason and emotions, our dreams, desires, the subconscious. Yes,
art shd not be instrumentalized. But we, as human beings, can be useful,
as Brecht tried to be. The usefulness of art, its emancipative strength,
its life-giving, life-enhancing force stems from that integrity,
still alive, somehow. Despite all. And to be sensed deep within you, within
every woman or man... Or shd I say: the creative core? Which,
by mere chance perhaps, let's us be useful without being servile, without
becoming creatures of a party, a dogma, an institution, a market...
Sometimes I think the "Third World" is coming back to the rich world;
in all those different varieties of deprivation, those "pockets of poverty,"
with their specific histories, that are blossoming, all over the globe.
And the pockets of wealthy living, "privileged" living, wasteful living,
haven't they, too, like the marks of small pox, started to plaster the
world's map? Art, or for that matter, poetry, as a practice, of diving
into the unknown reaches of our memories, our reasoning, our emotions,
our subconscious, will fathom the rock bottom layers of the "sea of humanity."
And even without choosing to take a stand, it will not be able NOT TO CRITICIZE
the scandalous, it will not be able NOT TO SPEAK WITH TENDERNESS of what
is warm and humane and full of love for the living.
- Andreas Weiland