‘1932-1935: Politiques du merveilleux’ / ‘The Politics of the Marvellous 1932-1935'

Fijalkowski, Krzysztof (2024) ‘1932-1935: Politiques du merveilleux’ / ‘The Politics of the Marvellous 1932-1935'. In: Surrealism. Paris: Centre Georges Pompidou / Woodbridge: ACC Art Books, pp. 38-39.

Abstract

This is one of a wide range of essays by leading global specialists on the history and major themes of surrealism, in the catalogue of the major exhibition Surréalisme (Sept 2024 - Jan 2025) at the Centre Pompidou, Paris to mark surrealism’s centenary. My essay focuses on a significant period of the early 1930s for the French surrealist group, in which complex political engagements including the need to trace a radical activist path on the left independently of the Parti Communiste Française while developing critical models for creative practice and theory. The significance of two key lines of enquiry are traced, both of which navigate a path between creative freedom and political exigency: on the one hand, the rise of the theme of the object, explored through games and collective research that was explicitly launched as a way to move beyond the divisive ‘Aragon affair’ of 1931 (in which one of the group’s central members had defected to the PCF); and on the other the significance of documentary photography, a medium whose inherent flexibility meant it could be showcased in surrealist journals at the same time as appearing in socially-committed magazines or exhibitions. Key figures are highlighted such as Claude Cahun, both an innovative photographic practitioner and an incisive theorist, as are wider contexts such as the parallel conditions of the surrealist group in Belgrade, in this same period forced into disbanding (including imprisonment for some members) given the pressures of maintaining Marxist positions against a background of far-right state repression. The catalogue is available in both French and English versions.

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