Tilman Spengler [ Germany ]

China, pictures, and portraits of China are taken as the subjects for 'Der Maler von Peking' (1996) and 'Die Stirn, die Augen, der Mund' (1999). Here Spengler combines his knowledge of Sinology with a joy for telling stories, thereby bringing to life two different epochs of China.  He has a knack for irony and for mixing facts with fiction, which is also what makes his most recent book such a good read.  'Meine Gesellschaft.  Kursbuch eines Unfertigen' (2001) is an autobiographical kaleidoscope of sorts, in which anecdote and fact, real and unreal are juxtaposed over 62 sections. Tilman Spengler takes the reader on a trip through his world – it’s motto: "certain facts are true, because one can only tell them like that and not differently." Tilman Spengler lives in Ambach at Lake Starnberg and in Berlin.

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