SURREALIST MANIFESTO

THE ART OF BEING HUMAN







PAINTING OF SURREALISTS REUNION 1922 BY MAX ERNST.




"AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT"
BY RENE MAGRITTE




" SKULL WITH CIGARETTE "
BY VINCENT VAN GOGH.

( IMAGES PROVIDED BY PICASA )

A Surrealist Manifesto:

The Declaration of January 27, 1925

With regard to a false interpretation of our enterprise, stupidly
circulated among the public, We declare as follows to the entire braying
literary, dramatic, philosophical, exegetical and even theological body of
contemporary criticism:

1. We have nothing to do with literature; But we are quite
capable, when necessary, of making use of it like anyone
else,

2. Surrealism is not a new means or expression, or an easier one,
nor even a metaphysic of poetry. It is a means of total liberation of the mind
and of all that resembles it.

3. We are determined to make a Revolution.

4. We have joined the word surrealism to the word revolution
solely to show the disinterested, detached, and even entirely desperate
character of this revolution.

5. We make no claim to change the mores of mankind, but we intend
to show the fragility of thought, and on what shifting foundations, what caverns
we have built our trembling houses.

6. We hurl this formal warning to Society; Beware of your
deviations and faux-pas, we shall not miss a single one.

7. At each turn of its thought, Society will find us
waiting.

8. We are specialists in Revolt. There is no means of action
which we are not capable, when necessary, of employing.

9. We say in particular to the Western world: surrealism exists.
And what is this new ism that is fastened to us? Surrealism is not a poetic
form. It is a cry of the mind turning back on itself, and it is determined to
break apart its fetters, even if it must be by material hammers!
Bureaus de
Recherches Surréalistes,
15, Rue de Grenelle

Signed: Louis Aragon, Antonin Artaud, Jacques Baron, Joë
Bousquet, J.-A. Boiffard, André Breton, Jean Carrive, René Crevel, Robert
Desnos, Paul Élaurd, Max Ernst, et al.
Source: Maurice Nadeau, The History
of Surrealism, Cambridge: Belknap Press, 1989, pp.240-41.

Take care,

GORD.