Poetikvorlesung 2026: Blixa Bargeld on language from noise.

The Poetikvorlesung 2026 is a lecture series by the German Seminar of the University of Zurich, whose first evening carries the title «Eine Reise mit Blixa Bargeld». The Berlin poet, musician and performer Blixa Bargeld, frontman of Einstürzende Neubauten and longtime guitarist with Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, offers insight into his production of texts and shows how language rises out of noise and sinks back into it. After the first two evenings at Literaturhaus Zürich the journey continues to the Schauspielhaus, where Bargeld's solo speech lecture performance combines spoken word, lecture and musical improvisation: words are spoken, rhythmised, repeated and turned into sound, with the voice itself becoming an instrument. The series is organised by Philipp Theisohn and Nicola Steiner together with Literaturhaus and Schauspielhaus Zürich, and the Zurich poetry lectures celebrate their thirtieth anniversary this year.