JD | You are the author of the essay Three
Crystals Star. You say in it that three crystals – poetry, love and freedom –
are the basis of surrealist art.
AB | The German poet Georg Friedrich Philipp the
single lord von Hardenberg, known as Novalis, said at the end of the 18th
century that poetry was an absolute experience. In Surrealism, poetry reached
the center of life by ceasing to be a mere art and becoming a method leading to
the widest consciousness. Surrealism also, following Rimbaud's and Marx's
changing lives, transforming the world, explored the problem of the
relationship between poetry and revolution. For Andre Breton, the author of the
Manifesto of Surrealism in 1924, love was a fateful force. For surrealists,
love is associated with the highest realms of spirit. Breton's postulate that
we will reduce art to its simplest expression of love is still valid.
And freedom? This
is a prerequisite for the surrealist to develop the human spirit. In this area,
surrealism rejects all compromises. The desire for liberation is expressed in
surrealistic work by avoiding traditional patterns, rules, procedures. That is
why in painting, it is not an endeavor for aesthetic expression but a desire to
make new discoveries.
JD | How was it with Surrealism in
Czechoslovakia?
The Prague group
had ten members. During the German occupation had to withdraw into illegality
and Štýrský death in 1942 ceased to exist. It did not recover after the war.
Toyen and Heisler leave for Paris. Young surrealist artists founded the band
Ra. She had a communist orientation and therefore cooperated with the Belgian
Revolutionary Surrealists. However, February 1948 marked the end of all free
art. The Ra group has been canceled. Some of its members were gathered around
by Karel Teige and continued to work, but without the possibility of
publication. After Teiga's death in 1951, Vratislav Effenberger became the
spokesperson, later called UDS.
JD | And the Lacoste group that you co-founded
in Brno in 1964?
AB | It was not until the 1960s, when Surrealism
began to be rediscovered by the public, specifically in 1964, completely
independent of the Effenberger Group, that the Lacoste group was formed with
four members - Jiří Havlíček, Josef Kremláček, Václav Pajurek and I. The events
of the group were attended by our friends, such as painters František Malý and Aleš
Navrátil, Slovak artists Karol Baron and Albín Brunovský. Our first sporadic
contacts with Praguers resulted in the signing of cooperation on the Prague
platform. Already here it is possible to trace the trail of pragocentrism,
which considers everything outside Prague as provincial and inferior.
Orientation in
post-war Surrealism was difficult for us. There were no personal contacts
across the Iron Curtain and we did not get to foreign literature. Another
disadvantage was the fragmentation of the surrealist movement. Nevertheless,
the Lacoste group managed to place themselves in the context of the groups at
that time.
AB | Correspondence and through supporters who
could travel. By the end of 1965 we had our first contact with the Paris group.
Then with the Italian group Surfanta and in France with the group Rupture in
Marseille. From a distance, we met people around the Brumel Blondesü revue in
the Netherlands and in Brussels around the very active Fantasmagie revue. These
included A. Simon, M. Leconte, E.L. Messens and I. Colquhonn. Phantasmagia
organized exhibitions throughout Europe, attended by some members of the
Lacoste group.
Cooperation with
surrealism-inspired Yugoslav poets culminated in the Invisible Mirror
exhibition held in Kruševac. Another exhibition, entitled The Logic of Clear
Night, was held in 1968 in West Berlin. And at that time, the last exhibition,
entitled Crisis of the Presence, was in May 1969 in Mons, Belgium, and a
reprint at the Brussels Gallery La Grande jatte.
JD | Then you left Czechoslovakia.
AB | Yes, in the summer of 1969 I emigrated to
Belgium. Two years later I joined the founding of Reviva Gradiva. Some Czech
and Slovak authors appeared in it. Karol Baron published his Panoptical
Manifesto there. Gradiva tried to build a bridge between the different streams
of contemporary Surrealism. Surrealism was carried out in three questions.
Forty-two supporters of Surrealism and its critics spoke in answer to five
questions about the relationship between Surrealism and art and philosophy.
Among them were Bounoure, E. Jaquer, Japanese Takiguchi, A. P. Mandiargues.
At that time it
was an important leaflet, published in April 1972 under the title How Long
We'll Wait with Head in the Sand. He protested against the Western concessions
of Soviet imperialism. It was distributed throughout Western Europe by our
Lacoste group under the borrowed title Gradiva.
JD | However, the knowledge of the very history
and effect of the traditional postulates of Surrealism is probably not a
nutrient in the contemporary life of Surrealism anywhere in the world.
AB | Definitely not. Surrealism is often given
as a religious order. Some even called sparkling wine. It is generally believed
that Breton decided the fate of individual surrealists. This means in terms of
their influence on the surrealist movement. Certainly there is a certain truth,
but it should not be forgotten that, according to Breton, surrealism was not
enough just to be interested. Every new adept had to bring something that
enriched Surrealism with originality and immediacy. Surrealism thus continued
to encourage new impulses. As in any human community, surrealists were at every
stage people who lost or lost interest. Usually it's about temperament and
affection. For this reason, new surrealist groups are still emerging whose
lives are ephemeral.
JD | Best time to remind you to create a Stir up
group.
AB | In 1995, the North Moravian company Karel
Teige´s broke up. Stir formed in the same year was formed by some of its former
members and other surrealists, including members of the former Lacoste group.
The group has performed more than 70 exhibitions in the Czech Republic and
Brussels and participated in international surrealist exhibitions in the
Portuguese Cultural Center Coimbra (2008) and Santiago de Chile (2009) and Costa
– Rica. Since 2006, thanks to the patron of art, Lubomír Kerndl has had
spacious seasonal exhibition interiors in the Devil's Tail Gallery in the
former Mohelský Mill on the Jihlava River.
AB | J. L. Bédouin, a biography of Breton, wrote
in the publication Ten Years of Surrealism: Surrealism ceases to be alone once,
unfortunately, identifies itself with the doctrine, dogma or simply monopoly of
one group of people. The composition of surrealist groups is unstable; internal
contradictions are often common where strong individuals try to assert their
opinions. Then the group splits and creates another. Then it depends on the
authority of people like Breton. He was able to unite the whole international
movement in unity. There are more groups in some countries. But they don't like
each other. There have been two groups in Belgium for a long time, the Brussels
group, closely focused on the British group with René Magritte, Paul Nougé and
Louis Scutenaire. And the second group, called The Rupture, led by Achil Chavi,
whose uncritical Stalinism later caused the group to disintegrate.
There is a similar
situation in the Czech Republic – two groups that do not meet. I lived in
Brussels for half a century, and although I am still interested in the problems
of the Czech surrealist movement, they are still a subtitle for me. However, I
remember one common publication. He has the title Flight to Night. On the last
few pages, probably thanks to Pavel Řezníček, there are examples of three
members of the Stir up group. Of course, the Stir up group is still active and
lacks cooperation with the so-called Czech and Slovak surrealist group. I think
separating the two groups is somehow beneficial. Decisions are faster and
foreign relations more dynamic.
JD | You are a member of the Czech surrealist
group Stir up. She has since 2006 a gallery called Devil's tail. You brought
many foreign surrealists there.
AB | Yes. These were French Noel Arnaud,
Jean-Martin Bontoux and Aurelien Dauguet, Belgians France Elysées, Henry
Lejeune and Tomas Rayner, British Tony Pusey and John W. Welson, Argentine Eva
Garcia, Portuguese Artur do Cruzeiro Seixas and Miguel de Carvalho, Dutch Rik
Lina, Argentine Miguel Lohlé and others.
JD | Surrealism has the prerequisites to reflect
the present. Can it co-create a European cultural face?
AB | The end of the ideologies we are
witnessing, the fatigue of the still dehumanized and the dehumanization of the
arts and the dissatisfaction with living conditions play a crucial role in
this. Paradoxically, if Surrealism is still alive, it is also American and
Western European universities. There they resist analysis and introduction to
aesthetic and ideological terms. Of course, it is moving away from its original
meaning, but nobody seems to mind. It is a merry-go-round where art dealers and
auction houses are skillfully hiding.
JD | In addition to theoretical and critical
work, you also have space for your own collages. How important is it to you?
AB | First of all, I am a poet and I break down
in various activities with my poem. Collages are for me artistic verification
of poetic metaphors and because their work is not subject to any previous laws,
it is a playfulness, where the result is often unexpected and surprising. I
consider it to be part of the surrealist games, which in today's “crowded
sense” are a world of inner tension.
*****
Agulha Revista de Cultura
UMA AGULHA NO MUNDO INTEIRO
Número 149 | Janeiro de 2020
Artista
convidado: Lubomír Kerndl (República
Checa, 1954)
Editor
convidado: Jan
Dočekal
Número especial dedicado ao Surrealismo na
República Checa
editor
geral | FLORIANO MARTINS | floriano.agulha@gmail.com
editor
assistente | MÁRCIO SIMÕES | mxsimoes@hotmail.com
logo
& design | FLORIANO MARTINS
revisão
de textos & difusão | FLORIANO MARTINS | MÁRCIO SIMÕES
ARC
Edições © 2020
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