Alexander Kluge/Gerhard Richter: Dispatches from Moments of Calm

translated by Nathaniel McBride

On 5 October 2012, the German national newspaper Die Welt published its daily issue – but things looked … different. Quieter. The sensations of the day, forgotten as soon as they’re read, were missing, replaced by an unprecedented calm, extracted with care from the chaos of the contemporary.
The calm was the work of Gerhard Richter, who had been granted control over Die Welt for that single day, taking over and imprinting all 30 pages of the newspaper with his personal stamp: images from quiet moments amid unquiet times. Among the many people to praise the work was writer Alexander Kluge, who instantly began writing stories to accompany Richter’s images. This book, the second collaboration between Kluge and Richter (December, 2012), brings their stories and images together, along with new words and artworks created specifically for this volume, a masterpiece by two acclaimed artists working at the height of their powers.
German original published by Suhrkamp Verlag, Berlin, under the title Nachrichten von ruhigen Momenten. 89 Geschichten. 64 Bilder in 2010.