Danksagen. Text als Beziehung

The 2025 edition of Danksagen. Text als Beziehung (“Acknowledgements: Text as Relationship”) was held in summer/autumn 2025 in the new studio space of Literarisches Colloquium Berlin (LCB). The project logo was designed by Carolina Giovagnoli using Hyper Scrypt by Jérémy Landes and Compagnon Medium by Sébastien Riollier – both available from Velvetyne. The logo was animated by Flor Yacante.

We asked the three authors Paula Fürstenberg, Sharon Dodua Otoo and Hengameh Yaghoobifarah to each found a collective, thereby revealing the network of relationships behind one of their works.

Writing means entering into relationships. Others collaborate on the text, readings, experiences and conversations are reflected in it. That is why hardly any new publication can do without acknowledgements: in just a few lines, they encapsulate the entire social grammar of a book.

All three invite four people who are connected to their publication – be it the editor, their brother or a fellow writer. Starting with informal kitchen meetings and working sessions in the new LCB studio space, the groups write their own text that focuses on the events behind the acknowledgements, highlighting influences and relationships. They then stage it and the book on several stages and in different formats over the course of one evening.