Thursday, January 14, 2010

Belgische surrealisten in de VS (3).

"Spirit proceeds by disruptive invention." - Paul Nougé.

excerpt from 'Spike Jones: Dandruff in the Long Hair of Music' by Hal Rammel, in the book 'Surrealist Subversions - Rants, Writings & Images by the Surrealist Movement in the United States', edited and introduced by Ron Sakolsky, Autonomedia 2002, ISBN 1-57027-122-4, page 650.

Belgische surrealisten in de VS (2).

"Early on, surrealists discovered this kind of imaginative freedom in African American music. The attraction to Black music must have seemed natural, for as the Chicago surrealist Group reflected in a special surrealist supplement to Living Blues magazine in 1976, "the surrealists could hardly have failed to recognize aspects of their combat in blues (and in jazz), for freedom, revolt, imagination and love are the very hallmarks of all that is greatest in the great tradition of Black music." Natural, yes, but not immediate. Some surrealists - Jacques Baron, René Crevel, Robert Desnos, Michel Leiris - appreciated jazz from the start, but others - including André Breton, author of the 1924 Surrealist Manifesto - initially found music less legible than the literary and plastic arts, and the great painter Giorgio de Chirico proclaimed "No Music". The winds shifted in 1929 when Belgian surrealist Paul Nougé published an essay titled Music is Dangerous, which offered a critical defense of music as one of many artistic forces "capable of bewitching spirit.""

excerpt from 'Freedom Now Sweet - Surrealism and the Black World' by Robin D.G. Kelley, in the book 'Surrealist Subversions - Rants, Writings & Images by the Surrealist Movement in the United States', edited and introduced by Ron Sakolsky, Autonomedia 2002, ISBN 1-57027-122-4, page 136.

Belgische surrealisten in de VS.

"A special 96-page "Surrealism in the Service of the Revolution" issue, edited by Franklin, appeared in January 1970; 5000 copies were printed - a thousand more than any previous issue. Later editions devoted substantial sections to French surrealist Benjamin Péret and Belgian E.L.T. Mesens. Under the Chicago group's direction, RA also published several handsome pamphlets - the "Surrealist Research & Development Monograph Series" - featuring works by the Chicagoans as well as Leonora Carrington, Joseph Jablonski, Paul Nougé, Nancy Joy Peters, and Toyen."

excerpt from 'Surrealist Subversion in Chicago: The forecast is hotter than ever!' by Ron Sakolsky, in the book 'Surrealist Subversions - Rants, Writings & Images by the Surrealist Movement in the United States', edited and introduced by Ron Sakolsky, Autonomedia 2002, ISBN 1-57027-122-4, page 69.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

'La musique est dangereuse' van Paul Nougé.

"On sait aussi que Magritte, Mesens et Souris ont signé le 30 janvier 1932 le tract rédigé par Nougé sous le titre 'La poésie transfigurée' à propos de l'affaire Aragon et du poème Front rouge à la gloire de l'U.S.S.R. Se démarquant de l'appel lancé par Breton en faveur d'Aragon poursuivi par la justice, Nougé et ses amis n'admettent pas qu'un poème soit considéré comme une manifestation de l'inconscient ou relégué 'dans le domaine fermé de la contemplation esthétique' ; ils veulent lui restituer 'sa valeur intrinsèque de provocation humaine' ; ils trouvent normal , dès lors, qu'il 'incite désormais les défenseurs de l'ordre établi à user envers le poète de tous les moyens de répression réservés aux auteurs de tentatives subversives.'"

Paul Nougé, 'La musique est dangereuse, écrits autour de la musique rassemblés et présentés par Robert Wangermée', Didier Devillez Editeur, Bruxelles 2001, ISBN 2-87396-042-6, pag. 144-145.
Zie ook: 'De kracht van muziek: een pleidooi voor gevaarlijke muziek!' door Peter Wullen in Gonzo Circus #52, 2001.