Notes on Surrealism and ‘Pataphysics
Notes on Surrealism and ‘Pataphysics
David Nadeau
Surrealism is not at all a literary or artistic movement and is still very much alive! Networks have never ceased to form since the Internationalization of the surrealist movement in the late 1920’s. I am tempted to see a parallel with the conscious diffusion of ‘Pataphysics some twenty years ago…The distinction between historical surrealism and “current” surrealism does not seem to be straightforward at all. Where does one begin and where does the other end? From the death of André Breton until today groups have continued to exist, others have been formed and/or dissolved. There is a continuum from the origins until now. Now, we may regret that Parisian surrealism was not more open in the past (elsewhere, it was completely different), especially during the Grand Jeu crisis and the exclusion of the friends of Sarane Alexandrian and Roberto Matta (around 1947). Current surrealism maintains benevolent relations with Pataphysicians, of course, but also with creators from various milieux. Sarane Alexandrian invited surrealists and Oulipians to publish in the Review Supérior Inconnu, etc. Each and all seekers of the imagination…
The writer Alain Joubert in Pour Le Grand Surréalisme. La Clé est sur la porte (The Key is in the Door). Disordered fragments of an impossible manifesto take up the expression of Georges Bataille, “Le Grand Surréalisme”, to designate “THE PLACE where all the currents of modern thought which arise in the twentieth century are reunited, at least all those currents for the spirit, for society, for mankind.” The surrealist movement proper, which gives its name to this larger current, would be part of it. In the “Notes” which complete the manifesto “Du saint-empire de mon Imagination” recently published in the last issue of the review Vocatif, I share and develop Alain Jubert’s point of view. Among the recent or current movements which participate in this “Grand Surréalisme”, I suggest that the most important could well be Les Congres et les Cahiers de Banalyse (1982-1991), the review Supérior Inconnu (1995-2011), the left wing of the Beat Generation, L’Incohérisme of Rémi Boyer and Alain Blandin, and, of course, ‘Pataphysics. These movements work, more or less in the shadows, towards a desirable re-enchantment of the world through poetic and analogical thought.
Many are the Pataphysicians who ignore each other and among surrealists, I must say that the Pataphysical, Faustrollian temptation is very strong. Many surrealists have been and are Pataphysicians, and vice-versa. More and more, for me, the two are inseparable. Thus, in the last issue of Le Vertèbre et la Rossignol, I invited one and the other to answer the same question. I believe in this bringing together of “the principle of equivalence” and “the Point Supreme”.
Fernando Arrabal signed the manifesto À la niche les glapisseurs de dieu, in 2006, at the invitation of the surrealist poet Guy Ducornet. Two years later, he showed this attached Pic-nic, on the occasion of the international surrealist exhibition O Reverso do Ohar, organized in Portugal by the surrealist poet Miguel de Carvalho. He participated in another international exhibition of the surrealist movement, El Umbral Secreto, organized in Santiago de Chile in 2009, by the surrealist group Derrame. Daniel Madrid and Marlo Broekmans also participated…The name of Bastiaan Van der Velden is present in some surrealist publications (Nieuwe anthologie, Van de Nederlandse Surealistiches Poezie, Hydrolith, Ce Qui Cera). The Jean-Pierre le Goff approach was close to the Parisians gathered around Vincent Bounoure then Marie Dominique-Massoni.
Of course, taking part in a surrealist exhibition or publication does not mean that you are part of the movement. There are, as there have always been, many ‘fellow travellers’ who retain a certain independence and do not identify as surrealists. But at the very least, it certainly indicates some affinity…
Either way, the living spirit of Dada is arguably what remains indefectibly after each cyclical destruction by the elements.
David Nadeau, Nov 1, 2016
The writer Alain Joubert in Pour Le Grand Surréalisme. La Clé est sur la porte (The Key is in the Door). Disordered fragments of an impossible manifesto take up the expression of Georges Bataille, “Le Grand Surréalisme”, to designate “THE PLACE where all the currents of modern thought which arise in the twentieth century are reunited, at least all those currents for the spirit, for society, for mankind.” The surrealist movement proper, which gives its name to this larger current, would be part of it. In the “Notes” which complete the manifesto “Du saint-empire de mon Imagination” recently published in the last issue of the review Vocatif, I share and develop Alain Jubert’s point of view. Among the recent or current movements which participate in this “Grand Surréalisme”, I suggest that the most important could well be Les Congres et les Cahiers de Banalyse (1982-1991), the review Supérior Inconnu (1995-2011), the left wing of the Beat Generation, L’Incohérisme of Rémi Boyer and Alain Blandin, and, of course, ‘Pataphysics. These movements work, more or less in the shadows, towards a desirable re-enchantment of the world through poetic and analogical thought.
Many are the Pataphysicians who ignore each other and among surrealists, I must say that the Pataphysical, Faustrollian temptation is very strong. Many surrealists have been and are Pataphysicians, and vice-versa. More and more, for me, the two are inseparable. Thus, in the last issue of Le Vertèbre et la Rossignol, I invited one and the other to answer the same question. I believe in this bringing together of “the principle of equivalence” and “the Point Supreme”.
Fernando Arrabal signed the manifesto À la niche les glapisseurs de dieu, in 2006, at the invitation of the surrealist poet Guy Ducornet. Two years later, he showed this attached Pic-nic, on the occasion of the international surrealist exhibition O Reverso do Ohar, organized in Portugal by the surrealist poet Miguel de Carvalho. He participated in another international exhibition of the surrealist movement, El Umbral Secreto, organized in Santiago de Chile in 2009, by the surrealist group Derrame. Daniel Madrid and Marlo Broekmans also participated…The name of Bastiaan Van der Velden is present in some surrealist publications (Nieuwe anthologie, Van de Nederlandse Surealistiches Poezie, Hydrolith, Ce Qui Cera). The Jean-Pierre le Goff approach was close to the Parisians gathered around Vincent Bounoure then Marie Dominique-Massoni.
Of course, taking part in a surrealist exhibition or publication does not mean that you are part of the movement. There are, as there have always been, many ‘fellow travellers’ who retain a certain independence and do not identify as surrealists. But at the very least, it certainly indicates some affinity…
Either way, the living spirit of Dada is arguably what remains indefectibly after each cyclical destruction by the elements.
David Nadeau, Nov 1, 2016
Translated by Erik Volet
Collage by Al Neil, from René Daumal series, 1992
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