Ritter die gefaltete uhr

Gerhard Rühm describes the number as the most reduced and at the same time most universal, intermedially transferable design element. Since the mid-1950s, the author has chosen number words and digits as material for numerous works, especially auditory and visual poetry, which are collected here for the first time and are largely available in their first print. Put on paper, e.g. as typewriter ideograms, script drawings, in the collage of everyday documents or in a wide variety of literary formats, numbers and numerical constellations gain thematic pragmatism from the respective design method. Calculations labelled as just, unfortunate, dreamed or mystical translate arithmetical vocabulary into lifeworld, existential or cosmic realms of imagination.Rühm accentuates the relationship between the words "zahlen" and "erzahlen" in model-like "narratives": from the course of life as a list of increasing and decreasing body size in centimetres to the history of the universe on the reduced scale of an earth year: from the Big Bang on 1 January to the moon landing in a year.From the genuine connection between number and rhythm, the author develops a variety of linguistic-musical concepts. By releasing the sensual qualities of numerals, Rühm's precisely calculated poems subvert our numerical and living environments, which are characterised by excessive increase and seamless controlling. Gerhard Rühm's number poems prove to be the most multifaceted, amusing and controversial corpus within this genre today.