Ritter die gefaltete uhr

Gerhard Rühm describes numbers as the most reduced yet simultaneously the most universal, intermedial design element. Since the mid-1950s, the author has chosen number words and digits as material for numerous works, particularly in auditory and visual poetry, which are presented here for the first time, mostly in their first print. When put on paper, for example as typewriter ideograms, written drawings, in collages of everyday documents, or in various literary formats, numbers and number constellations gain thematic significance from their respective design methods. Bills titled as just, failed, dreamed, or mystical translate arithmetic vocabulary into realms of everyday life, existential, or cosmic imagination. Rühm emphasizes the relationship between the words "zahlen" (to count) and "erzählen" (to tell) in model-like narratives: from a life story as a list of increasing and decreasing height in centimeters to the history of the universe in the reduced scale of an Earth year: from the Big Bang on January 1st to the moon landing in the last seconds before New Year's Eve midnight. From the genuine connection of number and rhythm, the author develops a variety of language-musical concepts. By releasing the sensual qualities of numerals, Rühm's precisely calculated poems subvert our number and life environments shaped by excessive increase and seamless control. Gerhard Rühm's number poems prove to be the most multifaceted, enjoyable, and provocative corpus within this genre today.