In a project that challenges convention and seeks to transform negative symbolism into something positive, the Austrian artist Andreas Joska-Sutanto undertakes the task of turning the pages of the controversial book My struggle of Adolf Hitler in an innovative cookbook. This initiative, which takes place in a café in Vienna, represents not only an artistic effort but also an act of historical reconciliation.
Joska-Sutantowho began his project eight years ago when the copyright on the Nazi manifesto expired, has dedicated nearly 900 hours of painstaking effort, working with a cutter to cut each letter of the text. With scarcely 100 pages Of a total of almost 800 processed, it estimates that it will need 24 years more to complete his mission of deconstructing the approximately 1.57 million letters of the work.
The 44-year-old artist carefully sorts the cut-out letters into a box with compartments designed exclusively for this purpose. “I want to show […] “that you can change a negative thing into a positive one, deconstruct and transform.”, said Joska-Sutanto about his motivation behind the project. The resulting cookbook already includes a variety of recipes, from a pizza his father taught him to gnocchi with eggs, a favorite Austrian dish of Hitler, underscoring the contrast between the content of the original and his transformation.
The choice to deconstruct My struggle has strong symbolism in Austria, a country that was annexed by the Third Reich in 1938. For decades, Austria presented itself more as a victim of Nazism than as an accomplice. However, it was not until the late 1980s that the country began a serious process of reflection and recognition of its role in Nazi crimes, including the murder of 65,000 Austrian Jews and the forced exile of another 130,000.
My strugglewritten by Adolf Hitler during his imprisonment in 1924, is a combination of autobiographical, ideological and political elements. In this work, Hitler exposes his ideology of racial hatred, anti-Semitism and describes his ambitions for territorial expansion for Germany. He criticizes what he considers weaknesses of the Weimar Republic’s parliamentary democracy, promoting authoritarian rule in its place. Furthermore, he advances his belief in the need to purify the German race, eliminating Jews and other groups he considered inferior. Mein Kampf It became the ideological foundation of Nazism and a tool for Third Reich propaganda.
The uniqueness of this project lies not only in its meticulous and patient artistic execution, but also in its quest to transform a text loaded with hate and destructive ideology into something that unites people: food. Through this act of “deconstruction,” Joska-Sutanto not only questions and redefines the perception of the infamous book, but also invites deeper reflection on how symbols and narratives can be reimagined and reoriented toward constructive ends.
The work of Joska-Sutanto, still in progress, resonates with a message of hope and change, demonstrating the power of art to confront and transform even the darkest aspects of human history. As she continues to cut out and rearrange each letter, his project serves as a silent but eloquent testament to the redemptive capacity and resilience of the human spirit in the face of past adversities.
Source: AFP
[Fotos: Alex Halada/AFP]
