File spoon-archives/surrealist.archive/surrealist_1996/96-08-21.184, message 23


Subject: Re: exhibition, further thoughts 
Date: Tue, 02 Jul 1996 17:52:40 +0100
From: "Theoretical Phys. MSc accnt. 13" <tpmsc13-AT-ic.ac.uk>


I wrote:>
>As part of the exhibition itself it might be appropriate to
>clarify the way Surrealism differs from various of its
>"sibling-movements", such as abstract expressionism, pop,
>Cobra, situationism, and other movements such as dada and
>post-modernism (plus all the versions of "neo-dada"). We all
>know, that many people have rather strange ideas about
>what Surrealism really is, and this might be one way of finally
>getting things right. It could be used as a kind of introduction
>to the exhibition.
>What do you think?
>
>Frank
>
to which Michael B answered
>
>This sounds like an unfortunately necessary idea.
>
>At the same time, I don't like it. If we need a disclaimer to prove we're
>surreal, then surrealism is dead... 
>
Why? Saying how surrealism differs from various other
movements doesn't kill surrealism, neither does it restrict in
any way really. Just like saying, for example how communist
anarchism differs from, say, trotskyism and syndicalism,
doesn't imply the death of communist anarchism....

William wrote:
>
>Remember, EACH COUNTRY had their own ways of expressing what it was 
>they thought Breton was saying, and the various things that emerged 
>were all quite different, and still Breton included these under his 
>umbrella.
>
This is precisely what I mean! Surrealism is a vast subject, a
very open-ended movement, in which various people have at
various times emphazised various aspects. Marking the
boundaries (and not the limits, to quote Breton...) of the
movement doesn't mean we all have to do exactly the same
thing, that we all have to have paint/write in identical manner,
nor that we can't disagree about all sorts of things. It just
mean that we agree on the farmes of our disagreements so to
speak..
I think this is what Pierre meant when he answered William's
comment with 
>
>But don't you understand that the magic is precisely that "the various 
>things that emerged 
>were all quite different, and still Breton included these under his umbrella".


Frank




   

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