Harry Hachmeister
Clay Bodies & Gym Buddies

Sunday, 27 April, 6pm
Reading and conversation
with Kay Matter and Cécil Joyce Röski

1–4 May, 12 –7 pm
Shop & Open Studio

Between Bridges Residency Space
Keithstraße 15, 10787 Berlin

Sunday, April 27, 6 PM
Reading and discussion with Kay Matter and Cécil Joyce Röski
(in German)

In Muskeln aus Plastik (Plastic Muscles), Kay Matter tells the story of Kay, a non-binary person living with the effects of post-Covid and chronic fatigue. The book explores the invisible physical and emotional burdens that come with this illness and raises the question of how genderqueerness/trans* masculinity and desire can coexist with chronic illness. Matter combines autofiction with queer and disability politics, offering a profound exploration of disability, gender, and care work—without claiming to provide a final language for invisible pain.

At the center of Cécil Joyce Röski’s yet-unpublished novel project Trizeps Royal (Triceps Royal) is Dedo II of Saxony, living in a fictional German contemporary monarchy. Dedo, soft-spoken and gentle, is deemed an unworthy king by his aristocratic family and isolates himself in his moated castle. When his friend Marfa leaves him, Dedo resolves to transform himself through bodybuilding, aiming to reshape both his physical appearance and his role as ruler, finally embodying the "harder" side of majesty. Yet he soon discovers that strength is not merely a matter of muscle mass.

Kay Matter grew up in Zurich and northern Italy and studied Scenic Writing at the Berlin University of the Arts. Matter is the author of the plays Alice verschwindet, Alias Anastasius, and Grelle Tage. The latter was published in 2023 and received both the Hans Gratzer Prize (2022) and the Nestroy Theatre Prize (2023). Plastic Muscles (originally published under the name Selma Kay Matter) is Matter’s debut prose work.

Cécil Joyce Röski (born 1994 in Schleswig-Holstein) studied at the German Institute for Literature in Leipzig. Their work has appeared in literary journals including Edit, BELLA triste, and Metamorphosen. In 2023, Röski’s debut novel Poussi was published and awarded the Retzhof Prize for Young Literature. In 2024, Röski received the Grimme Prize for the screenplay of the historical punk web series Haus Kummerveldt (Arte).