KOPFGEBURT,
EINE ERZÄHLUNG.
Bachelor Thesis .
A Supplement to Joris-Karl Huysmans „A Rebours“.
This is a story, based on the novel “A Rebours” by Joris-Karl Huysmans, that analyses the protagonists‘ character and translates it into architecture. „Kopfgeburt“ focuses entirely on his wish for isolation from society and reality and functions as a supplement to “A Rebours”. The architectural design is, besides texts and illustrations, just one part of the whole story.
In „Kopfgeburt“, Jean des Esseintes, Huys
man‘s protagonist, seeks the greatest possible abstraction from reality in the closed inner world of the shelter he creates for himself. He turns away from reality through the medium of books. This cosmos of hundreds of worlds, of hundreds of images of reality, becomes his imaginary cabinet of curiosities. Jean des Esseintes feels so repelled by the surrounding reality that he withdraws completely from it. He abstracts himself down to the smallest detail and creates his own artificial paradise on his search for refuge.
He gets lost in the stories of his books, dissolves between the letters and puts himself back together again.
In „Kopfgeburt“, Jean des Esseintes, Huys
man‘s protagonist, seeks the greatest possible abstraction from reality in the closed inner world of the shelter he creates for himself. He turns away from reality through the medium of books. This cosmos of hundreds of worlds, of hundreds of images of reality, becomes his imaginary cabinet of curiosities. Jean des Esseintes feels so repelled by the surrounding reality that he withdraws completely from it. He abstracts himself down to the smallest detail and creates his own artificial paradise on his search for refuge.
He gets lost in the stories of his books, dissolves between the letters and puts himself back together again.
The topography absorbs the house. Only in the East there is a narrow opening through which one can enter.
The library is the core of the house. The innumerable books, carpets and curtains give the inner world its shape.
Knowing that he has separated himself far enough from reality, he is free. Free to do anything and to be anything. He disappears into his head and is, in the end, just thoughts.
07–2020