Reading
„Hier und ohne uns“
Nikolai Vogel
Reading
22.05.2026, 19.00
Nikolai Vogel
live reading and performance at Galerie Gerhard Grabsdorf, Friday, May 22, from 7 PM.
„Hier und ohne uns“
One’s own limitations, vast stretches of time, and the present moment. The world as it is now—how it came to be, and how it is becoming. Greed and fear, dreams and screens, this sense of being part of a line of generations; the small and the immense, reaching out to the farthest edges—stillness and restlessness, a feeling of happiness. His readings are an experience.
Nikolai Vogel is a writer and visual artist whose practice navigates the space between image and text. In both art and literature, he works in a distinctly associative way, emphasizing the fragmentary nature of reality—one that also allows for openness. Language, spatial perception, and the experience of time are essential components. Silence, the waiting between words. Space and the body. Tension. Pauses. The gap between word and image. The untranslatability of media formats. The analogue—the digital.
Most recently, he has published six volumes of poetry: the 2,520-verse collection Fragmente zu einem Langgedicht (gutleut verlag, Frankfurt am Main, 2019); the 200-page poem Vielzweckbuch (edition offenes feld, Dortmund, 2021); and, with Black Ink Verlag in Scheuring, the titles Anthropoem (2021), Eine Sprache, die sagt, dass sie außer mir ist (2023), and Das Notizbuch mit den Affen (2024), featuring shorter texts.
And in 2026, his three-part long poem Hier und ohne uns, comprising 3,333 verses drawn from the immediately experienced present and its simultaneous, countless coexistence of things and observations, extending toward a world in which the human being may no longer appear.
Nikolai Vogel, who lives in Munich, will speak at Galerie Gerhard Grabsdorf about his long and short poems and will be presented for the first time in a longer reading performance from his new work.
Dieses Echo des Urknalls
Vielleicht ist es ein Schrei
Aber wie um alles in der Welt
Sollen wir denn zu Hilfe eilen
Anklang und Ausklang
(from: Nikolai Vogel, Hier und ohne uns, poetry, Black Ink Lyrik, Scheuring, 2026)
Nikolai Vogel
Born in Munich in 1971, he lives in Munich as a writer and visual artist.
He studied German literature, philosophy, and computer science at LMU Munich.
In both art and literature, he works in a distinctly associative manner, emphasizing the fragmentary nature of reality, which in turn also allows for openness.
Finalist of the Open Mike 2004 and the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize 2005.
Scholarship recipient of the Authors’ Workshop at the Literary Colloquium Berlin in 2005.
Bavarian Art Promotion Prize 2007, literature category.
Project grant for visual arts from the City of Munich, 2008.
Winner of the “Let’s Perform – Art in Public Space” competition by the Cultural Department of the City of Munich, 2012.
Publications (selection):
»Spam Diamond« (Roman), Haymon 2012.
“Große ungeordnete Aufzählung (Detail)”, in various individual publications from a text developed over the years, including Parasitenpresse, Cologne 2009; SuKuLTuR, Berlin 2014; as well as private print editions by Peter Ludewig, Munich 2008 and Kirchseeon 2015.
His poetry collection fragmente zu einem langgedicht, comprising 2,520 verses, was published in 2019 by gutleut Verlag, Frankfurt am Main.
From March 18 to April 26, 2020, during a quarantine-like period, he read his then unpublished novel Angst, Saurier over 40 consecutive days and published the reading videos daily on YouTube.
»Vielzweckbuch«, edition offenes feld 2021.
»Anthropoem«, Black Ink 2021.
»Eine Sprache, die sagt, dass sie außer mir ist«, Black Ink 2023.
»Das Notizbuch mit den Affen«, Black Ink 2024.
»Hier und ohne uns«, Black Ink 2026.
He also runs the Black Ink Verlag publishing house together with Kilian Fitzpatrick and forms the music duo Schlachtbach with him. Together with Silke Markefka, he most recently presented a major exhibition at the end of 2025. »Nach der Grenze«At the same time, a publication of the same title was released as a reader and artist’s book by Black Ink Verlag.