About the work
Er putzt is a text by German writer and illustrator Valeria Gordeev. It was presented at the 2023 Days of German-Language Literature in Klagenfurt and won the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize. Deutsches Theater subsequently presented a stage adaptation conceived as an ASMR performance and directed by Marie Schleef. The text dates from 2023.
Plot
The text centres on Konstantin, who devotes himself to cleaning with extraordinary precision. At the same time, he looks after his younger sister Lada while their mother works. Cleaning the kitchen becomes an intensely detailed activity in which sounds, surfaces and tiny traces of dirt acquire unusual significance. What initially seems like mundane domestic routine gradually reveals Konstantin's relationships, sensitivity and attempt to manage both external pressures and his own internal disorder through meticulous cleaning.
Cultural significance
Gordeev received the 2023 Ingeborg Bachmann Prize for Er putzt, one of the most prominent awards for contemporary German-language literature. The jury recognised the text's precision and sensitivity and its ability to transform an apparently mundane activity into serious literary material. Its later theatrical adaptation also demonstrates the strong acoustic and physical dimensions already inherent in the prose.