Bruno Schulz
I wanted to write a little something about the Polish writer Bruno Schulz, because both Hannahs visual art contributions and the musical contributions for “Maquette” take off from Bruno Schulz’s story “Treatise on Tailor’s Dummies”.
Bruno Schulz
I discovered Schulz’s writings through The Quay Brothers “Street of Crocodiles” animated artwork, at a screening of their work at the Walker Art Center in 1987. Their animation blew my mind and it also guided me to two writers that I absolutely love: Bruno Schulz and Robert Walser. The Quay Brothers also made a film adaptation of Robert Walser’s The Institute Benjamenta which is partially autobiographical in that Robert Walser did go to “Butler School”.
After seeing the Street of Crocodiles, I looked for everything I could written by and about Bruno Schulz, His life was short and ended tragically when he was killed by a gestapo officer in Drohobych (now part of Ukraine, but at the time of his death was part of Nazi occupied Poland).
His stories were mythical, magical reminiscences about his neighborhood, family, and especially his father, who he called “the great improviser”. Although Bruno Schulz published only two books of short stories, he is considered one of the greatest Polish writers of the 20th Century. I have read his stories over and over. They are infinite for me. You can read about him here.
FYI, there is a biography of Schulz called The Regions of the Great Heresy, by Jerzy Ficowski.
I’m a Bruno Schulz nut and over the years have gone down many rabbit holes involving the search for his lost novel “The Messiah”. This led me to reach out to an ex-rabbi who had written an article that included a story about some clues to its possible survival among old KGB records in Ukraine. This was in an article I stumbled upon which really you need to read to believe! He responded to my message right away, seemingly hoping to get funding to go in search of the book! Too bad my pockets were empty. Here is the article —please read it! It’s very interesting
Hannah and I (along with the Faint Praise Orchestra) chose Schulz’s story “The Treatise on Tailors Dummies” for Maquette because in the story he his father gives lectures on the “demiurge” and the “nature of matter” to his shop assistant seamstresses on a winter night. Again, you have to read it—I can’t do it justice.
Many, many people have made art influenced by Bruno Shultz’s beautiful writings, and we just wanted to add our names to the list.
One interesting coincidence: I was reading an interview with the Quay Brothers in the London Institute of Pataphysics Journal and there is a photograph of the animation studio they were moving out of. In the picture, you can see one of the same antique “Santos Cage Dolls” that Hannah bought through an auction to use for her photo series contribution in Maquette!
That’s all for now! Thanks for tuning in! xxChris
