Open-Air Readings

Description

On the Kleinbasel side of the Middle Bridge, directly at Greifengasse 1, this year there is an outdoor stage with a festival tent: Here, literature meets city life. The program is hosted by Caterina John. 10:30 AM
Alisha Gamisch: Parasiti
A letter disrupts the lives of Rina, her Aunt Valli, and her grandmother Lydia. When Lydia falls silent, Rina begins to inquire and uncovers her family’s story. Between Novosibirsk in the 1960s and Fürstenfeldbruck in the near present, Alisha Gamisch tells of three Russian-German women. 11:00 AM
Sophie Jung, Sarina Tharayil, Anuri Tharayil, and Ralph Tharayil: Friendship
On behalf of BuchBasel and a Basel-based magazine, the Tharayil siblings and Sophie Jung have written texts on the theme of friendship. The texts were not published but are now presented as a booklet at BuchBasel. We proudly present the four texts. 1:00 PM
Dominic Oppliger: Gschtüel
Bathing in the zeros: On the Gstühl area – once characterized by crafts and trade, now by studios and music – a nameless narrator finds a home and meets Julia. When she disappears and returns changed, a mysterious search begins. 1:30 PM
Şeyda Kurt: Time of Monsters
In a dilapidated neighborhood, news spreads of the impending end of the world. While a young woman with a pistol in her backpack roams the neighborhood, different life stories, fears of the future, and ideas of community collide. 2:00 PM
Wortstellwerk Basel
The Wortstellwerk – Young Writing House Basel organizes writing workshops, text coaching, and events for and with young writers. Carolina Mazacek, Rosa Di Nardo, and Liljana Susuri present their latest texts. Moderated by: Anais Sommer. 3:00 PM
Hendrik Otremba: The Graves
Oswalth Kerzenrauch cannot die. He survives the Third World War and the destruction of Earth. When the last humans leave the planet, he remains with a small group in the ruins of Berlin. And begins a life after the end. 3:30 PM
Sarah Elena Müller: Imbalance
Alice and Rio once studied art together. While she works as a waitress, he increasingly falls into drug addiction. Seven years later, Alice seeks a conversation. But her memories are fragile, and Rio questions her version of their shared history. 4:00 PM
Eric Ehrhardt: Im Klauhof
In Im Klauhof, a world is depicted where shopping centers are everywhere and consumption turns into war. A 'reproduction mob' prepares to storm the pyramid of goods. Amid advertising language, invented brand names, and word games, a I searches for ways of resistance. 4:30 PM
Christine Johanna Keller: Kopfkind
Johanna is a lawyer, single mother, living with her teenage daughter and her mother with dementia. As her mother’s illness changes her routines, contact with a man she met online increasingly takes up space. Moderated by Martina Rutschmann. 5:00 PM
Literatur-Nati: Einwürfe und Kopfbälle
The Literatur-Nati, the team of football-playing authors of Switzerland, celebrates its twenty-year anniversary with a collection of short stories, poetry, and spoken-word texts about the round and the angular. Featuring Ivan Ergić, Rolf Lappert, Andri Perl, and Regula Wenger. Contributors and additional info: Alisha Gamisch studied English and German in Munich and London and now lives in Berlin. Her first poetry collection Lustdorf (Verlagshaus Berlin, 2020) was chosen by Haus für Poesie as one of the best poetry debuts of the year. In 2022, she received the Nora-Pfeffer-Preis for poetry from the Bavarian Cultural Center of Germans from Russia, and in 2023, she was a fellow at the Literary Colloquium Berlin. She is a founding member of the feminist association Wepsert e. V. and co-curator and moderator of the reading and discussion series PostOst-Café at the Maxim Gorki Theater Berlin. Since 2025, she has been part of the literary girl band No Scribes. Parasiti is her debut novel. Status: October 2026. Sophie Jung lives in Basel and London. Her work constructs and deconstructs meaning through objects and language, exploring power dynamics in interpretation. Her sculptures combine found and improvised elements that emerge as defiant agents of a precarious collective. In her writing, she oscillates between sense and sensation, using linguistic ornamentation to disrupt legibility and resist co-option. Selected exhibitions include “Genius Loci” at Kunstverein Ludwigshafen; “Move” at Centre Pompidou, Paris; “They take it seriously, I think it’s interesting” at Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe; “Unsetting” at Istituto Svizzero, Milan; “Sincerity Condition” at Casino Luxembourg; “Taxpayer’s Money” for Frieze LIVE; and “The Bigger Sleep” at Kunstmuseum Basel. Upcoming projects include solo exhibitions at Kunsthalle Bern and MUDAM Luxembourg, and a new performance commission for Westfälischer Kunstverein. She is currently working on her first monograph with Mousse Publishing. She won the Swiss Art Awards in 2016 and 2019, and received the Manor Kunstpreis in 2018. Status: October 2026. Anuri Tharayil works at the interfaces of text, music, and performance. Her texts, audio pieces, music, and performances have been shown at Kaserne Basel, Theater Neumarkt (Zurich), Center for Literature (Burg Hülshoff), and Khoj Studios (Delhi). Her work deals with wear, decay, and transformation of bodies and identities, as well as colonial and imperial violence. Most recently, her performance Growing Pains was performed at Ballhaus Ost (Berlin). Anuri lives in Berlin. Status: October 2026. Sarina Tharayil (*1993) grew up as the child of South Indian parents in Switzerland. She studied medicine and physiotherapy in Fribourg and Basel, was a member of the editorial team of the literature magazine process*in for several years, and has been a member of the external program committee for Zürich liest since 2026, as well as part of the art project Archiv der vollen Bäuche. Her first publication was in defrag zine 2021. Besides her work as a somatic therapist, she writes, reads, and moderates on topics such as corporeality and care. Sarina lives in Basel. Status: October 2026. Ralph Tharayil works as an author and writes literary, performative, and essayistic texts. His debut Nimm die Alpen weg was published in 2023, for which he received multiple awards, and will be published in English by Seagull Books in 2027. Most recently, he was a fellow at the Literary Colloquium Berlin, house author at the stages in Bern, and guest lecturer and mentor at the Swiss Literature Institute in Biel and at the University of the Arts Bern. His play I. Grief. Different. A mourning festival premiered at Theater Bremen in September 2026 (directed by Miriam Ibrahim). Ralph is part of the post-German artist collective parallelgesellschaft. He lives in Berlin. Status: October 2026. Dominic Oppliger

Highlights

• Open-air readings at the Middle Bridge
• Presentations by Alisha Gamisch and Şeyda Kurt
• Moderation by Caterina John

General Information

The outdoor readings take place on the Kleinbasel side of the Middle Bridge and offer a varied program with different authors. Visitors can experience literary texts in a festive atmosphere.

Location

Schweiz (Ortsangabe folgt)

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