Wojciech Bruszewski

2013

Book, 20 cm x 13.9 cm, 317 p, language: Polish, publisher: Korporacja Ha!art, Kraków, ISBN 978-83-62574-95-7.
Materials: ink, paper

Collection: Collection M HKA, Antwerp (Inv. no. B 2025/877).

Literary synopsis

The main character of the novel is Richard von Hakenkreuz, who at the beginning of 20th century comes to Europe from a small place in Africa and brings over the Swastika symbol. The action takes place throughout the whole 20th and the beginning of 21st century, until the Nazi symbol is deleted from Microsoft Word program. The author described the genre of the novel as “documentary fiction”. Richard von Hakenkreuz is in the macropolitics of 20th century, he encounters many important people who rule this world – the presidents, generals, businessmen. He takes part in the most crucial moments for humanity. The book is aimed at trying to realize an impossible idea of telling the story of 20th century. To help fulfil that objective the author created an innovative and intermedial form of a novel, in which similarly as in the internet, the “multitasking” and “informational chaos” are what matters the most.

Relation of the novel to the artist’s practice

For the purpose of this novel a special website was created. It is an integral part of the reading process. There are 44 codes that can be found in the book and each one of them, after being entered in the website, reveal an audio-visual or photographical content. The reader in the specific part stops reading the text and, thanks to the knowledge of the code, is able to enter “the electronic library” where it is possible to confront the world presented in words with the audiovisual evidence. Such process, instead of clarifying the problems encountered in the book, instigates the reader to question them even further and enhances the feeling of a hallucinatory order of the world.

Novel's website