Logoskop fifty
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| Admission: free admission |
| Ticket: Please book your ticket in advance online or at the box office in the foyer. |
| Suitable for: 14 years and older |
| Which languages: German |
| Venue: Humboldt Lab, 1st floor |
| Group size: max. 25 persons |
| Part of: #Logoskop |
If science is queen at Humboldt Lab, then #Logoskop is her court jester. Since 2021—and now for the fiftieth time!—artistic freedom has been making monthly appearances at Humboldt University’s exhibition space, using literature to shake up the scientific perspective. For this anniversary edition, three poets—equipped with microphones and amplifiers—will wander through the exhibition and recite texts, including the series’ curator himself, Bas Böttcher.
Joining Bas Böttcher will be slam poets Barbara Zalesky and Stefan Schwarck. Together, they will provide commentary on the exhibition “On Water” with texts recited live. Visitors are invited to join them on their eloquent tour.
Curated by Bas Böttcher
Barbara Zalesky
Fontane wrote his first novel when he was just shy of 60. So Barbara Zalesky still has plenty of time. She only recently began writing for an audience. Yes, of course, she’s always been involved with writing. She studied German language and literature, did public relations work for academic institutions in Berlin and Dresden, and now teaches German as a foreign language. But poetry—that only came when there was no other choice. When it simply had to come out.
In Pirna, Saxony—where Barbara Zalesky lives—she is part of an alternative cultural center and has been helping to organize concerts, readings, and exhibitions for several years. There, she launched the reading series “Tauchgang Literatur,” a kind of public speed-dating event for books. She presents her poems—usually alongside other authors—on small stages.
Success, of course, isn’t the plan at all. A love of language, flashes of inspiration, words that resonate far and wide, a witty quip that catches people off guard—that’s really all there is to it.
Stefan Schwarck
Stefan Schwarck is an author, poet, performance poet, and artist from Kiel. His work spans poetry slam, performance art, and children’s literature—in both German and Danish. He studied Scandinavian and German philology and passed the state examination in German and Danish.
As a regular contributor to the Kiel-based reading stage “Irgendwas mit Möwen,” he brings poems and short prose pieces to the stage. At jazz slams and solo readings, he also performs alongside musicians. He frequently combines language with other art forms: he writes texts to accompany paintings and photographs, develops literary-musical revues for exhibitions, and combines readings, installations, and performance art. He writes poems and stories for children and creates interactive readings.
Through his foundation, “Die blaue Stadt,” Stefan Schwarck conceives and organizes art and cultural projects for children, teenagers, and adults who are dealing with loss and grief. In 2026, he co-authored the young adult novel weg sein with Christina Müller—a story about friendship, illness, loss, missing someone, and grieving. At LOGOSKOP, his work combines keen observations of everyday life with linguistic wit, sound, performance, and a joy in exploring the expressive possibilities of literature.
Bas Böttcher
Bas Böttcher is one of the co-founders of the German-language spoken word scene. He studied at the Bauhaus University in Weimar and has lived in Berlin since 2000. His texts are considered exemplary for contemporary stage poetry. They appear in school textbooks (Schroedel, Cornelsen, Klett) and important collections of German poetry (Der Neue Conrady, Lyrikstimmen, etc.).
He has also published three volumes of poetry with Voland & Quist: Dies ist kein Konzert, Neonomade and Vorübergehende Schönheit. Bas Böttcher has performed at venues including the main hall of the Elbphilharmonie and the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (Paris), as well as at book fairs in Beijing, Guadalajara, Moscow, São Paulo and Bangkok.
Bas Böttcher is the inventor and programmer of various media formats for poetry. He developed the electronic hypertext Looppool as a new form of expression on the Internet. He has taught at the German Literature Institute in Leipzig, the German Literature Archive in Marbach, the Culture Academy of Baden-Württemberg, the Berlin University of the Arts and Goethe Institutes worldwide.