Thomas Kling (1957–2005) became known for his poetic and essayistic work, his performative Sprachinstallationen and his cross-border relationships with music and the visual arts. His complex poems are characterised by a high degree of linguistic reflection. Kling has received numerous awards, including the Else Lasker-Schüler for poetry (1994), the Peter-Huchel-Preis (1997), the Ernst-Jandl-Preis (2001) and the Düsseldorfer Literaturpreis (2005). Since 2000 he has been a member of the German Academy for Language and Poetry. From 1994 to 2005 Kling lived at the Raketenstation Hombroich. There he initiated and directed the programmes Hombroich : Literatur and Hombroich : Fellowship Literatur.
After Kling’s early death, his estate was donated to the Stiftung Insel Hombroich. In addition to archival materials, it also includes Kling’s library and was installed in his former workrooms at the Raketenstation. The archive is being looked after with the assistance of Thomas Kling’s wife, the artist Ute Langanky. The first indexing of the estate was made possible by a cooperation with the Heinrich Heine Institute in Düsseldorf. The estate can be researched online. In 2011, the Kunststiftung NRW established the Thomas Kling Poetikdozentur at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn. In November 2020, Suhrkamp Verlag published the four-volume edition of Thomas Kling’s works. To mark the occasion, the Stiftung Insel Hombroich organised a symposium in July 2021. The recording of the symposium can be found at the links below:
“worte. und deren hintergrundstrahlung” — 23.07.2021
“worte. und deren hintergrundstrahlung” — 24.07.2021
The technical production of the symposium was supported by:
- Neustart Kultur
- Kultur.Gemeinschaften
- Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien (BKM)
- Kulturstiftung der Länder (KSL)