Page 59 - Studio International - October 1970

efficiency ...By activating revolutionary Mons group. You must change your attitude from complete; that, however, was not its
Surrealism, we wanted above all to reassert the toward us ... '.25 purpose. I have merely attempted to describe the
main theses, the means, the very concept of Later he was to ask the Mons group to actors of the movement and put them and
Surrealism as such and to enter into practical participate in the Congress International their work in the proper historical context.
communication with Communism'.'° The d'Art Experimental which was to be held in GISELE OLLINGER-ZINQUE
movement was born in Brussels, on 5 April Amsterdam in November 1949, and to convince
1947 and then spread to France. 'It took shape his surrealist friends, he defined Cobra's Translation from French by JACQUES J. HALBER.
in two manifestos', one Belgian: Pas de stand: 'Cobra stands for the dialectic union of
Quartiers dans la révolution,21 and one French: the dream and action ...'.26
Manifeste des Surréalistes- Révolutionnaires
en France dated summer 1947. Finally, La PHASES I A. Breton : French poet, born at Tinchebray
Cause est entendue,22 a tract signed both by the In 1952, E. Jaguer undertook to put into action (Orne), on 18 February 1896, died in Paris on
Belgians and the French, denounced Breton's a programme designed to renew the contacts 28 September 1966. For several years he studied
stand and ended with these words : `Surrealism that had been lost between the various groups medicine with an orientation toward psychoanalysis.
Ch. Bussy, L'accent grave, Le Fait accompli,
will become what it no longer is'. Revolutionary of movements scattered throughout a number (Brussels), No 19/20, April 1969.
Surréalisme des peintres', in F. Alquie
Surrealism can be defined as the determination of countries and this 'on an ideological basis 3
Entretiens sur le Surréalisme, Paris-La Haye 1968,
to end the 'splendid isolation' and the advent of excluding any formalistic prejudice and placing pp 246 ff.
the collective international spirit. It was also major emphasis on the "imaginary" considered 4 Letter to J. Van Lennep, 9 May 1967.
the determination `to destroy the ambiguities as the main source of all valid creation'.27 5 Ch. Dotremont, `Notes techniques sur l'image dite
upon which the early Surrealism fed itself'; but, From these literary considerations the magazine surréaliste', La conquête du monde par l'image, Paris
1942, pp 18-19.
for Belgium, this was above all especially an Phases was born, the first issue of which 6 Letter to J. Van Lennep, 9 May 1967.
occasion to bring forward new personalities came off the presses in January 1954. It was to 7Musique 1, 20 July 1925, 'Tomb of Socrates'.
(Christian Dotremont or Marcel Broodthaers) defend the Dadaists, the abstractionists as well Musique II, 20 September 1925, 'Venice Festivals'.
8P. Waldberg, Rene Magritte, Brussels 1965, pp 124 ff.
who helped lead Surrealism to outdo itself. as the Futurists and the Surrealists. Later on, 9 Letter to F. Dumont and A. Souris, 20 June 1935.
there were exhibitions both in Belgium and 10 Letter from Breton to F. Dumont, Paris,
November 1935.
SURREALISM AFTER 'THE SURREALISM' abroad. However, it was particularly between 11 Letter from F. Dumont to A. Souris, Casteau,
L'aventure ou mieux l'expérience surréaliste se 1959 and 1963 that Phases and the surrealist 20 June 1935.
poursuit, se renouvelle, se capte, se séduit movement were closest to each other. On 28 12 Letter from F. Dumont to A. Souris, Casteau,
elle-même. May 196o, the tract Tir de barrage was signed 18 July 1935.
13 Only two issues were published: No. i, February
Marcel Lecomte jointly by Phases and by the surrealist movement. 1940; No 2, April 1940.
It consecrated the identity of views of the two 14 The latter had decided to quit the group in October
In 1944, Christian Dotremont wrote : 'For groups `with respect to a disorderly avant garde 1939 for he was no longer in agreement with the
political ideas defended therein. Nevertheless he
the last year, I have been fighting, here, a daily and their recognition of the moral movement as a stayed in contact with his friends.
struggle for the state of mind that Surrealism springboard for the revolutionary creative 15 He was never seen alive again. He is reported
has, to put it awkwardly, "vertebralized" ... I am experience'. In Belgium, Jacques Lacomblez to have been killed in one of the commando raids on
the Belsen concentration camp, around 16 March
far from giving it a final value, but I think that was the main craftsman of this renewal. Since 1945.
its ephemeral value (as Mariën puts it) is not 1956 he has taken part in the movement's 16 Minutes of the 17 March 1947 meeting, held by
summarized in a "between two wars" state of endeavours and Jaguer said of him that `he was M. G. Lefrancq.
17 This show, organized by Breton and Duchamp
affairs and that a bombardment will not be able able to submit himself to the repeated under the title 'Surrealism in 1947', was held at the
to destroy a thousand-year-old way of onslaughts of the automatic tempest, for the Galerie Maeght in Paris in July 1 947.
thought'.23 exclusive benefit of a romanticism which is 18 Letter sent by the Haute Nuit Group to André
Breton, Mons, 29 April 1947.
Today, in 1971, we can assert that Surrealism translated by the anguished irruption of 19 Letter from Breton to Marcel Lefrancq, Secretary
is not dead. Movements have been founded and convulsive elements, threatening visions that of the Haute Nuit Group, Paris, 7 May 1947.
will continue to be founded under its banner. loom up at the edge of a forbidden world ...'.28 20 Invitation to the First International Conference of
Revolutionary Surrealism, dated to October 1947.
Solitary individuals who do not belong to any 21 This tract which bears the date of 7 June 1947
group follow paths which are parallel to it, PHANTOMAS was signed by Marcel Arents, Paul Bourgoignie,
attempting to show (still and always) Shortly before the publication of the first Marcel Broodthaers, Achille Chavée, André de Rache,
Christian Dotremont, Irene Hamoir, Marcel
`the other side of the mirror'. Let us cast a issue of the Phases magazine, a movement, Havrenne, André Lorent, Albert Lude, René
brief look at the elements of a movement which— purely Belgian this time, had been making Magritte, Marcel Marien, Paul Nougé, Léonce Rigot,
by a constant renewal, source of endless great strides. Its name was 'Phantomas', Louis Scutenaire, Jean Seeger and Armand Simon.
22This tract, dated Paris, 1 July 1947 brings together,
changes—has kept Surrealism alive. whose magazine, headed by Marcel Havrenne, for Belgium, almost the same names as those found
Theodore Koenig and Joseph Noiret, in the Belgian tract : Pas de quartiers dans la revolution.
23 Letter to M. G. Lefrancq, 18 April 1944.
COBRA brought out its first issue on 15 December 1953. 24 This group brought together the experimental
On 3 November 1948, Asger Jorn, Christian More poetic than pictorial, this movement was artists of three countries : Denmark, Belgium and
Dotremont, Joseph Noiret, Appel Constant and to unite all the big names of surrealist literature Holland, whence its name is derived :
Corneille, met in Paris and founded the such as the Piqueray brothers, Chavée, Colinet, CO (Copenhagen), BR (Brussels), A (Amsterdam).
25 Letter to M. G. Lefrancq, Copenhagen,
international Cobra Group. 24 The immediate Scutenaire, Lecomte, Bourgoignie, etc. 18 September 1949.
concern of the Belgian group, of which 26 Letter sent to the Haute Nuit Group, 20 October
Dotremont was the unquestioned leader, was DAILY BULB 1949.
27 Preface to the catalogue of the Autour du Surrealisme
to stay in contact with the surrealist milieu: A similar endeavour began in La Louvière, show, Caen, Theatre-Maison de la Culture, 20 March
`It seems unbelievable to me that the Haute Achille Chavée's native region. It was the 1965.
Nuit group is not taking part in his endeavour. Daily Bul29 which since 1957, under the 28Preface to the catalogue of the Autour du
Surrealisme Exhibition (op cit).
Do become a member of Cobra. I am ready to leadership of André Balthazar and Pol Bury, 29 Balthazar and Bury were to publish the magazine
come to Mons, but you must become a member was to contribute to greater knowledge of the Daily Bûl (no 1, March 1957) and a set of pamphlets
of Cobra... It would be still more surrealist experience and of its ramifications to called Les Poquettes volantes which put texts by Bury,
Piqueray, Chavée, Scutenaire, Folon, Colinet, etc.,
unbelievable were the Malmo surrealist group the present day. side by side. The first issue, devoted to Colinet, was
to work with the Bruxelles group and not the This survey of surrealist endeavours is far published in 1966 under the title Vilaine et Reseda.

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