Azart

Completely surreal!

This exclamation has now become part of our everyday language.

And many contemporary artists, from the highly publicized Jeff Koons to the young generation fresh out of art school, still pay homage to the concepts, models, and above all, the audacity of Breton's circle.

In 1942, didn't Breton declare to the students of Yale that "Surrealism was born from an affirmation of boundless faith in the genius of youth"?

It's no wonder, then, that every new artist claims a connection to this movement! Yes, but beware the guardians of the temple: "no one can call themselves a surrealist without being recognized by them," they believe... Who are "them"? Small groups scattered throughout the world, corresponding with one another and still gathered today around the last remaining witnesses of Breton's final public appearances. For example, in France: as soon as the group officially dissolved in 1969, the writer Vincent Bounoure joined the resistance. Alongside him, a handful of figures, who also believed that Surrealism could not be buried (Michael Löwy, Michel Lequenne, and Michel Zibecca), kept the flame alive. And from 1990 onward, they co-opted new members, such as the Turkish artist Ody Saban. The criteria? According to her, "neither a school nor a style, but a way of life. And of conducting collective experiments!"