Tag Archives: Art and Revolution

Annie Le Brun on Surrealism

… the worst thing would be for surrealism, turned on its head, would be to make us forget the extent to which “the flora and fauna of surrealism are unmentionable”, but also that the quality of the air we breathe … Continue reading

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The surrealist film-eye

In the hands of a free spirit the cinema is a magnificent and dangerous weapon. . . . The creative handling of film images is such that, among all means of human expression, its way of functioning is most reminiscent … Continue reading

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When the “surrealist object” becomes a “surrealist self”: Claude Cahun

I’m an asocial rebel and a revolutionary dreamer,” she writes, “and do not fit any political party; my religion is paganism, including inspired figures such as Socrates, Buddha, and Kropotkin; and my (dialectical) method of thinking is taken from Heraclitus, … Continue reading

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Surrealism and the art of making surrealist objects

Poetry must be made by all, not by one. Comte de Lautréamont In poetry and in painting, Surrealism has done everything it can and more to increase these short circuits. It believes, and it will never believe in anything more … Continue reading

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Surrealism in the Mirror of Anarchism

Man proposes and disposes. He and he alone can determine whether he is completely master of himself, that is, whether he maintains the body of his desires, daily more formidable, in a state of anarchy.Poetry teaches him to. It bears … Continue reading

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André Breton: A Surrealist Manifesto

… make no mistake about it, those responsible for putting this philtre of the absolute into circulation are the enemies of order. They pass it round secretly, under the eyes of the police, in the guise of books and poems. … Continue reading

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Surrealism: The unfinished revolution

Surrealism is not, has never been, and will never be a literary or artistic school but is a movement of the human spirit in revolt and an eminently subversive attempt to reenchant the world: an attempt to reestablish the “enchanted” … Continue reading

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Jacques Rancière: Reading freedom through Anton Chekhov

Jacques Rancière, in his most recent essay, explores through Anton Chekhov’s fiction the unpredictable yet ever possible and disruptive appearance of freedom in the everyday lives of his characters; in our lives. We share below an excerpt from Rancière’s essay, … Continue reading

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James Baldwin: Sonny’s Blues

For, while the tale of how we suffer, and how we are delighted, and how we may triumph is never new, it always must be heard. There isn’t any other tale to tell, it’s the only light we’ve got in … Continue reading

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James Baldwin: The Uses of the Blues

The title “The Uses of the Blues” does not refer to music; I don’t know anything about music. It does refer to the experience of life, or the state of being, out of which the blues come. Now, I am … Continue reading

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