Literature Prize of the State Capital of Wiesbaden 2022
The Literature Prize of the State Capital of Wiesbaden 2022 has been awarded to singer, composer and author Dirk von Lowtzow. Best known as the frontman of the Hamburg rock band "Tocotronic", von Lowtzow presented his literary debut with autobiographical texts in 2019 with "Aus dem Dachsbau".
The prize is endowed with 10,000 euros and has been awarded biennially since 2020 to authors who work intermedially in their works and make references to other arts, media or discourses. The expert jury is made up of literary critics Mara Delius (Literarische Welt), Andreas Platthaus (FAZ) and Insa Wilke (Süddeutsche Zeitung, among others). The event is organized by the Wiesbaden Cultural Office.
The award ceremony took place on November 16, 2022 at the Kulturforum Wiesbaden. Head of Cultural Affairs Axel Imholz presented the award and gave a welcoming speech. As part of the event, Dirk von Lowtzow read excerpts from his book and played matching pieces.
With Dirk von Lowtzow, the state capital of Wiesbaden is honoring an artist whose work is largely inspired by literary references. His literary debut "Aus dem Dachsbau" is itself like a concept album, whereby he "transposes the conciseness and originality of his song lyrics into prose, but without imitating the characteristic wordplay of the songs. In the stream of autobiographical and autofictional narrators, he thus develops his own narrative and style-forming power," said the jury.
About Dirk von Lowtzow
Dirk von Lowtzow was born in Offenburg in 1971 and founded the band "Tocotronic" together with two fellow students in 1993. Their breakthrough came with their first album "Digital ist besser" (1995) and twelve further albums have been released to date. From 1999 to 2014, von Lowtzow also released five albums as part of the experimental duo "Phantom/Ghost".
In 2015, he collaborated with playwright and director René Pollesch on the opera "Von einem der auszog, weil er sich die Miete nicht mehr leisten konnte" at the Volksbühne in Berlin. He composes theater and film music, most recently for the internationally successful film "Styx" and interprets texts by Christian Kracht and H.P. Lovecraft, among others, for audio books.