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Coppelius approached and a blue flame crackled on the stove.
There were all sorts of strange apparatuses. Oh God! As my
old father was bending down to the fire, he looked quite different.
A horrible spasmodic pain seemed to have distorted his mild
honest features into a hideous disgusting devil's face. (E.T.A.
Hoffmann, Der Sandmann)
So that is what, in the Age of Romanticism, the alchemist's
magic laboratory looked like, where gentle people mutated
into demons when trying to take the divine act of creation
into their own hands. The being they created is "a tall,
very slim, perfectly proportioned, splendidly dressed woman"
(E.T.A. Hoffmann, Der Sandmann). This is the daughter of Spalanzani,
professor of physics. She is called Olimpia and drives Nathanael
almost out of his mind. What do the magic laboratories of
the modern age look like? Let us pay a visit to Johannes Häfner,
who deals with E.T.A. Hoffmann professionally, in the Nuremberg
quarter of 'St. Peter', surprisingly near 'Galgenhof' ('Gallows
Yard'), the region around the central station. It is hardly
surprising that he lives with his automata in a pretty 19th
century building, but he is not at all like a mad scientist
on his quest for the philosopher's stone / the Holy Grail
/ the Blue Flower. A pity, really! Automata? Correct, Johannes
Häfner lives together with automata which inhabit his
whole home and - so it seems to me - have taken over control.
Olimpia, too, is among them, described by the Häfner
brothers as "a puppet without reason, without ability
to be critical - she is an automaton, really." (Guido
und Johannes Häfner, Informationen/Aktivitäten [Informations/
Activities], 3/99) Although "perfectly proportioned",
nevertheless her head is the shape of a flat screen.
This mixing of two periods in art and literary history has
to be one's starting point, if one wants to grasp the cosmos
of the brothers Guido and Johannes Häfner. E.T.A. Hoffmann
was really Ernst Theodor Wilhelm Hoffmann. An admirer of Mozart,
he adopted the name 'Amadeus': born in 1776, he was music
teacher, conductor, theatre composer, writer, painter and
graphic artist. Johannes Häfner: born in 1961, colleges
of design respectively communications design, data processing
clerk, software developer, artist, typographer, writer, and,
of course, also composer and musician. His brother Guido:
born in 1968, precision mechanic, Munich University of Technology,
artist and presenter. These three all-round talents approach
their world by employing different disciplines, thus moulding
it into word and image: 'Gespenster-Hoffmann' (meaning 'Spectre-Hoffmann'
or 'Phantom-Hoffmann'), known for his fantastic poetry. His
work approaches the limits of consciousness in order to penetrate
the demonic depths of human psyche and to replace the structure
of day with different forms of madness. Guido und Johannes
Häfner, whose work - in whatever form - comes to life
with an enormous lightheartedness and positive energy and
has not at first much in common with Hoffmann's gloom.
An automaton, whose various mutations inhabit Häfner's
home, is Olimpia, sprung from master Hoffmann's cosmos. She
is joined by the Häfner brothers' creations: 'Königskasper'
('King Caspar'), his wife, 'Musterknabe' ('Model Boy'), 'Kopfrüssler'
('Trunk Head'), 'Schnabelbaby' ('Beaked Baby') and 'Hirnbirn'
('Pear Brain'). These characters are exaggerated, grotesque,
but nevertheless amiable. They are found in the Häfner
brothers' work as steel or wood sculptures, artist's books,
drawings or computer graphics. They let us look into an unmasking
mirror: 'King Caspar', of noble birth, as St. Caspar one of
the Three Kings, endowed with a crown as an insignium of power,
also wears a fool's cap - he is both master and fool in his
family. Well-fed 'Model Boy', comic-like 'Trunk Head' (a mythical
creature that watches situations of human conflict without
comment or judgement), and finally 'Pear Brain', a boy in
his puberty, approaching his world and its possibilities with
open arms. These figures all constitute archetypes, forming
a 'Gesamtkunstwerk' (total work of art) by means of paper,
bytes, wood and steel. The beings of this world are well-meaning
towards us; they initially do not pretend to want to pull
us into Hoffmann's demonic world by power. They invite us
to watch, to talk, to remember and to recognize. Their effect,
however, is insidious, with unforseen consequences.
The artist's book 'ETA-Leben' ('E.T.A.'s Life') - a zigzag-fold
with computer graphics and mouse drawings by Johannes Häfner,
published in 2003 with 26 copies - describes this effect:
The first pages are dominated by characters in a dazzling
explosion of coloured lines derived from the world of E.T.A.
Hoffmann and the Häfner brothers - figures agitated,
restless, but detached as if catapulted out of their universe.
As if perceived through a veil, photographs of people can
be seen acting in the background and coming forward occasionally
through cracks in the space-time-continuum. Suddenly this
world becomes more organized. Silence reigns and the artificial
figures behind the inserted quotation look at us and want
to contact us: "He was nowhere comfortable but in the
world of his ideas, imaginations, designs, and occupations.
When working, he wanted to spice up life. He worked by summoning
all his strength of life, but without being aware of his efforts;
then he was weary, within and around himself everything was
silent and dull." (Helmina von Chezy, Bei Hoffmann im
Verhör [Hoffmann's Questioning]) With these words, the
contact is interrupted, the time slot starts to dissolve from
the outside, and the picture of two men, one of whom is moulding
types into texts, withdraws. Finally, the imaginary world
of pictures is destroyed. This piece of work irritates; similar
to Hoffmann, Johannes Häfner approaches the limits of
human perception, the penetration of the unconscious into
the apparent structure of everyday life; here by means of
computer painting.
The portraits of the Häfner brothers found in the media
seem to verify this loss of reality: In a self-portrait from
1989/90, Johannes is still the personification of 'King Caspar',
whereas in 1996 he shows himself as a thoughtful poet, behind
him the generous writing "Ich" ("I");
some months later, he presents himself as a carefree hippie
with long hair; in 1998, finally, he is the distinguished,
friendly smiling elderly gentleman. Who, really, is Johannes
Häfner? One of his books from 2003 is called "ICH
ETA ICH" ("I E.T.A. I"). Is this the answer
to my question? And Guido Häfner? He is known, above
all, in side and rear view, with head gear and ear protection,
bent and kneeling. Clearly recognisable, however, are 'Genius
Dethelding', the 'Model Boy', and 'Peregrinus'. Although they
are tackled with chain saw and weld torch, they are the real
winners in this picture puzzle. And you, gentle reader, are
you still on Guido and Johannes Häfner's trails, or have
you already left our universe? Watch out!!!
Reinhard Grüner
Translated by Cornelia Göbel
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