Walser Publication: Textos 8, (Robert Walser : Jakob von Gunten), 2023 Mexico City
Robert Walser: Jakob von Gunten, 2023
This publication, wrapped in fragments of microscripts, a form of wrting which initially remained indecipherable, produced for the project Textos #8, contains quotes by Walser, inserted between the pages, printed on transparent paper so as to allow the text to remain legible.
Walser was often referred to as the “writer of the small”, of what resides at the threshold of the perceptible, the seemingly insignificant, which however containes great depth and meaning.
Jakob von Gunten is a first person account told by the protagonist, a young man of noble background who runs away from home and decides to spend the rest of his life serving others. To this end he enrolls in a school for servants. The text approaches the notion of “spiritual nobility” in a world of rich and poor. It is a densely layered reality, being possible only to a rich person, a person of privilege, who can enjoy a simple life “a life in no hurry”.