Tolia Curriculum
Liesl Ujvary, Good & Safe
Saturday, June 13, 2026, 2 to 4 pm

Liesl Ujvary reads from her first book, Sicher & Gut (1977). In the afterword to the new edition, Ann Cotten writes: “This collection of witty, plain, and self-contained texts moves like the needle of a scale between a serious and a humorous reading (of course, the two are interwoven). Depending on the expectations one brings to the texts, they may appear as a contribution to the literary comedy of humanity, as a satire of specifically Austrian methods of living, or as a modernist-analytical description of a bleak, repressive postwar life. In any case, they bring its existential backbone into sharp relief.” 

Selected texts from the book are also included in the forthcoming three-part publication in collaboration with design studio Syndicat accompanying Tolia Astakhishvili’s exhibition. This reading will be conducted via video call. 

Liesl Ujvary (b. 1939, Bratislava, Slovakia) lives and works in Vienna. She studied Slavic studies, ancient Hebrew literature, and art history in Vienna and Zurich. In the mid-1970s, she translated and edited an anthology of unofficial Soviet poetry, whose manuscripts she smuggled out of Moscow. Her poetic debut Sicher & Gut (1977/2017) combines conceptual rigor with slapstick and social satire. Ujvary publishes poetry, prose, radio plays, and essays; her work extends to experimental electronic music and video. 

The reading will take place via video call and will be conducted in German.

Tolia Curriculum is a project conceived by Georgian artist Tolia Astakhishvili, unfolding as a daily schedule of workshops, lectures, screenings, readings, and participatory formats for children and adults. In the lead-up to Figure of the Child, her largest exhibition to date, Astakhishvili opens her production and installation process to the public as she develops her work in situ.

Program Overview

Image
Tolia Astakhishvili, Tolia Curriculum, 2026, courtesy of the artist