Date: Fri, 24 May 1996 05:05:24 +0200 (MET DST) From: p_petiot-AT-euronet.nl (PETIOT_Pierre) Subject: Re: More than a label William, I want to subtract this one paragraph from your post, in order to concentrate on it (as I cannot do better for the time being) >Rather than seeing PHASES as exclusive to surrealism, I see it as the >open door FOR ME, to surrealism, because as an artist primarely, I see >surrealism as FOR ME, a NEARLY closed door to art. (I am sorry I can't >put the proper emphasis on some of these words... the limitation of >this medium, but please read the "for me" and "nearly" as being very >strongly expressed as a statement specific to me, and not anyone else) William... Why make a fuss about non-existing problems. You DO understand that Art is a part, and a very valid part of surrealism and that nobody disagrees about that. That means that practice of art itself and all related questions, are parts of the job, just as well as other activities and questions which are also part of, or might become part of surrealism. Basically what I understand behind all you recently said, is that you are very unhappy because there is currently no on going discussion about art on this list. Why not simply say it that way, since it is true. Although I am no artist, my feeling also is that this situation is simply a shame. [Now, unfortunately, I cannot help because of my dramatic lack of competence in your area. But if I could, I would, even if the only possible reason I could find for it was to make William Dubin happy... Which as I made clear above is certainly not the case]. But well, since you do not have this flaw I have, why not start immediately discussing art issues and do what you like ? Why not build the exhibitions you dream of ? That is a simple consequence of what I would call "organizational automatism". Is not organization meant to support creativity rather than the reverse ? (And besides, does not the magnificent work of Charles Fourier show that you may also be surrealist in dreaming organizations...) Moreover, should not we drop any pretention to anything if we were not capable to process more than one subject at a time ? And well - that would also be a valid definition of surrealism to me - are we not there quite precisely and seriously to care about what we love ? There are artists enough here and provided they move and tell about it, that makes an art movement. To paraphrase Marx, surrealism is basically nothing more than what surrealists do. -------------------------------------- Now, my problem concerning these stories about "names", is that I like the surrealist people here and the ones in Paris or London or everywhere there is a surrealist and I also like all the dead surrealists and what they did, as well as the ones yet to come and what they will do. And since you said it yourself, I do not see "why can't we get all along?". As we said together with Barrett, just open a project folder in surrealism and name it the way you like. But to summarize my attitude and make a contributionl for a name - if you absolutely want one a different one - my proposal would be "surrealisthme" (in French) or "surrealisthmus" (in English and probably German too) This because "surrealisthme" is not surrealisme (except for those who do not know how to read). And besides, "surrealisthme" is not an "isme" either but just an "isthme", in other terms an isthmus, that is to say a narrow strip of land between two (surrealist) continents, which I would like to hope, applies to where we are currently standing on the map. Muslirares I unfortunately have to go on holidays until next tuesday and will hence not be able to contribute in between. Pierre PETIOT See also... http://www.euronet.nl/users/p_petiot/poiein/poiein.html http://www.euronet.nl/users/p_petiot/index.html
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