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Hermetic Bird. Surrealists' Answer To Jrgen Habermas

Hermetic Bird. Surrealists' Answer To Jurgen Habermas

by Michael Lwy

Source:

PRAXIS International (PRAXIS International), issue: 4 / 1986, pages: 503-505, on www.ceeol.com.

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COMMENTS AND NOTES

HERMETIC BIRDSURREALISTS' ANSWER TO JURGEN HABERMAS

Michel Lowy, et alIn an article by Jiirgen Habermas published some time ago by PraxisInternational as well as in some other writings by the same author, one can findreferences to surrealism which unfortunately bear witness to a certainmisunderstanding.First of all Habermas seems to relate surrealism to the phenomena of the

loss of aura analysed in WaIter Benjamin's writings. However, if the aura is,for Benjamin, the cult value of the work of art; if its absolute predominanceduring the first period of human artistic activity made of its products "aboveall a magical instrument" (Benjamin, "The work of art in the age ofmechanical reproduction"); and if surrealism is mainly-as Benjamin himselfformulated it in a profound insight-a magical experiment with words (Benjamin, "Surrealism"), how is it possible to describe it as an enterprise of auradestruction? Would it not be rather an obstinate attempt to re-establish themagical aura of art as one could still find it in the so-called primitive societiesor in the esoteric (hermetic) tradition?More: isn't it a systematic enterprise of"auratic"-i.e. magical-metamorphosis of all the activities of the humanspirit?According to Habermas, the aim of surrealism is the liquidation of art, theliquidation of appearance, the liquidation of artistic representation*; inanother essay he refers himself to the "surrealist program to negate art"**.Could it be that Habermas is confusing surrealism with dadaism? In the sameway as Horkheimer's critique of the traditional conception of theory does notmean the "liquidation" of theory, the surrealist rejection of the traditionalaesthetic conceptionsdoes not at all imply the "negation" of art. Poetry, theimaginary, art, not, only are not "negated" or "liquidated" but constitute forthe surrealists the supreme form of a sovereignty of the spirit to which theyhighly claim allegiance. Far from aspiring to "liquidate" poetry, Breton hopedthat one day "she would decree the end of money and distribute heaven'sbread on earth" (Breton, First Surrealist Manifesto). In relation to plastic arts,surrealism did not aim at liquidating appearance or representation, bllt to usethem in order to reveal the inner model (Breton, Surrealism and Painting).The third remark by Habermas (directly linked to the above mentioned) isthat surrealism has the intention of implementing "a false Aufhebung of art

Habermas, "Questions and Counterquestions", Praxis International vol. 4, no. 3 (October 1984)p.237.

** Habermas, "Modernity versus Postmodernity", New German Critique, no. 22 (Winter 1981), p. 11.Praxis International 6:4January 1987 026{}-8448 $2.00

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504 Praxis Internationalinto life" (Praxis, vol. 4, no. 3, p. 237), or "to blow up the autarchical sphereof art and to force a reconciliation of art and life" (New German Critique, no.22, p. 10); surrealism would indeed be the historical moment when modernart destroys in a programmatic way the envelope of appearance which ceasedto be beautiful in order to find again, de-sublimated, life itself.Now, surrealists as a matter of fact never looked for a "de-sublimated life";on the contrary they considered sublimation "the Freudian concept underwhich goes most of our agitation" (Breton, Second Manifest of Surrealism).Their aim is not to "reconcile" art and life but to change life (Rimbaud) andtransfonn the world (Marx), a truly revolutionary task for which art is one ofthe most powerful levers, as ferment of negativity, principle of refusal ofreality, magnetic needle always turned towards the absolute break. It is not aquestion of dissolving art into life (or vice-versa) but to operate anAufhebung-in the Hegelian sense, i.e. criticismlconservationlovercoming-ofthe traditional oppositions between dream and reality, reason and folly, poetryand daily life. Of course, this surrealist procedure is an hermetic bird whichcannot easily be imprisoned by the spider's web whose threads are thecategories of rationalist/analytical, pre-hegelian and pre-dialecticalunderstanding.For surrealism, art is always, since its origins, an organic part of life. Theproblem raised by surrealist activity is not therefore to reabsorb art into life,but to reorient both towards a common pole which is the freedom of thespirit-therefore showing humanity how to get out of this "pestilentialcorridor. . . where it becomes morally almost impossible to breathe" (Breton,La lampe dans l'horloge, 1948).Habermas refers himself to the "failure of the surrealist revolt" against theinsitutionalization of art (Praxis, no. 3, p. 237). It is true that many surrealistartists finished by becoming themselves "institutionalized"; in our opinionand Habermas seems to share our view, if we understood well his article-thisdoes not diminish the legitimacy of the revolt. And, above all, the surrealistrebellion aims at much more than the institutional statute of art : it is thewhole of the dominant institutions and ways of thinking of our civilizationthat it questions. As long as a few obstinate minds refuse to comply with thetotal power of instrumental reason, it will be too soon to speak ofa "failure" ofthe surrealist revolt.ParisVincent BounoureAurelien DauguetMarianne van HirtumMichel LequenneMichael L6wyEleni VarikasMichel ZimbaccaPragueKarol Baron

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