{"id":6096,"title":"Kurtyzana i Pisklęta (The Courtesan and the Chicks)","dimensions":"15.9 x 22.9 cm, 794 p, language: Polish, publisher: Koorporacja Ha!art, Krakow, ISBN: 978-83-89911-42-1","date_begin":"2007-01-01","material":"ink, paper","art_status_id":13,"legal_status_id":47,"category_id":26,"platform_id":1,"deleted":false,"asset_count":1,"stream_count":0,"collection":"Collection M HKA, Antwerp","cached_tag_list":"artist novel","publishing_process_id":1,"annotation":"","date_end":null,"reference":"B 2025/236","stream_count_app":20,"permalink":"kurtyzana-i-piskleta-the-courtesan-and-the-chicks","description_ca":null,"short_description_ca":null,"description_it":null,"short_description_it":null,"cached_primary_asset_url":null,"cached_actor_names":null,"hide_from_json":false,"prev_platform_id":null,"description_uk":null,"short_description_uk":null,"description_tr":null,"short_description_tr":null,"mhka_works":true,"category":{"en":"Book","nl":"Boek","fr":"Livre"},"poster_image":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/mhka_ensembles_production/assets/public/000/012/917/large/072659344019b05a5b4f21f465721ce216602.jpg?1350294797","poster_credits":null,"translations":[{"locale":"en","short_description":"","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLiterary synopsis\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Courtesan and the Little Chicks\u003c/em\u003e is the semi-fantastical story of a professor who wants to use his works and inventions to create a new reality, so he cooperates with the communist regime; however, he cannot cope with his petty bourgeois family, greedy for material goods, who are waiting to grab all his money. Out of vengeance he decides to deprave and destroy some boys who are the offspring of his loathsome relatives, to which end he tries to employ the charms of his now ageing former lover. Rejuvenated by cosmetic surgery and make-up, she turns up at the professor\u0026rsquo;s house and gets down to work, though the results go much further than the original intentions. The novel is largely based on ideas drawn from \u003cem\u003eFaust\u003c/em\u003e, and there are also lots of references to other classic works of nineteenth and twentieth-century literature. In this modern version of \u003cem\u003eFaust \u003c/em\u003ethe leitmotifs taken from Goethe undergo a disturbing relocation and interpretation, which means that the reader has to make quite an effort to identify the devil in this particular world. In the tale of the courtesan and the little chick-boys, Niemczyk is evidently mythologizing his own life story: the history of a maverick rebelling against the modern decline in moral values.\u0026#39;\u0026#39;\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e- Jerzy Jarzębski\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRelation of the novel to the artist\u0026rsquo;s practice\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eKrzysztof Niemczyk began to write in the 1960s. From the twenty narratives he created during that period, only two have been preserved to this day: \u003cem\u003eTragiczna łąka\u003c/em\u003e (Tragic Field) and \u003cem\u003eChłopczyk rozbijający rodzinę\u003c/em\u003e (Boy Breaking up a Family). In the years 1965-1968 he wrote a novel \u003cem\u003eKurtyzana i pisklęta, czyli Krzywe zwierciadło namiętnego działania albo inaczej Studium chaosu\u003c/em\u003e (The Courtesan and the Chicks, or a Crooked Mirror of Passionate Action, or A Study of Chaos), which was not publish until 30 years later. Niemczyk\u0026rsquo;s character, his uncompromising attitude and resistance to reality, lead modern interpreters to comparisons with the views and practices of the Situationists. In their text \u003cem\u003eNiemczyk\u0026rsquo;s Situationism\u003c/em\u003e, Marcin Hernas and Piotr Marecki, wrote that the artist tried to \u0026quot;revolutionize his own life\u0026quot; calling upon such groundbreaking books as \u003cem\u003eThe Society of the Spectacle\u003c/em\u003e of Guy Debord and \u003cem\u003eThe Revolution of Everyday Life\u003c/em\u003e, by Raoul Vaneigem.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"locale":"nl","short_description":"","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLiteraire synopsis\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Courtesan and the Little Chicks \u003c/em\u003e(De courtisane en de kuikentjes) is het semi-fantastische verhaal van een professor die zijn werk en uitvindingen wil gebruiken om een nieuwe werkelijkheid te cre\u0026euml;ren, en daarom samenwerkt met het communistische regime. Hij kan echter niet overweg met zijn kleingeestige, burgerlijke familie, die hebzuchtig en materialistisch is, en op de loer liggen om naar al zijn geld te graaien. Uit wraak besluit hij enkele jongens die nakomelingen zijn van zijn gehate verwanten te ontrieven en te verwoesten. Daarom probeert hij de charmes in te zetten van zijn nu ouder geworden vroegere geliefde. Verjongd dankzij plastische chirurgie en make-up daagt ze op aan het huis van de professor en gaat aan de slag, al reiken de gevolgen veel verder dan de oorspronkelijke intenties. De roman is grotendeels gebaseerd op idee\u0026euml;n van \u003cem\u003eFaust\u003c/em\u003e, met ook veel verwijzingen naar andere klassiekers van de 19e en 20e eeuwse literatuur. In deze moderne versie van \u003cem\u003eFaust\u003c/em\u003e ondergaan de leitmotifs van Goethe een verontrustende verandering en interpratie \u0026ndash; met als gevolg dat de lezer behoorlijk wat moeite moet doen om de duivel te identificeren in deze merkwaardige wereld. In dit verhaal van de courtisane en de kleine piepjongens is Niemczyk duidelijk zijn eigen levensverhaal aan het mythologiseren: de geschiedenis van een non-conformist die rebelleert tegen het moderne verval van morele waarden.\u0026#39;\u0026#39;\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e- Jerzy Jarzębski\u003c/p\u003e"},{"locale":"fr","short_description":"","description":""},{"locale":"ru","short_description":"","description":""},{"locale":"de","short_description":"","description":""},{"locale":"es","short_description":"","description":""},{"locale":"el","short_description":"","description":""}],"actors":[{"id":1955,"name":"Krzysztof Niemczyk","category":{"en":"Author","nl":"Auteur","fr":"Auteur"}}]}