Encyclopaedia Da Costa
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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| - | The '''''Da Costa encyclopédique''''' (Paris: Max-Pol Fouchet, 1947; '''Encyclopaedia Da Costa''') is an encyclopedia published by members of [[Acephale]]. | + | The '''''Da Costa encyclopédique''''' (Paris: [[Max-Pol Fouchet]], 1947; '''Encyclopaedia Da Costa''') is an encyclopedia published in [[fascicle]]s by members of [[Acephale]]. |
| - | + | The publication was meant to coincide with the [[Le surréalisme en 1947]] in Paris, but due to printing delays, the ''Encyclopedia'' was not distributed until months after the exhibition ended. Ironically modeled after the format of a conventional encyclopedia, it [[lambast]]ed social and individual conventions with an unprecedented fervor, as well as putting forth more obscure ideas. | |
| - | 1947 - [[International Surrealist Exhibition]] - [[Galerie Maeght]], Paris[31] | + | |
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| - | When Breton and Duchamp opened the exhibition "[[Le surréalisme en 1947]]" in the [[Galerie Maeght]] in Paris after the war, Breton referred back to the exhibition of 1938. He remarked that, on the one hand, the exhibition was supposed to represent the surrealist intention, which was situated on the boundary between poetry and reality, while, on the other hand, it was also supposed to manifest the spirit of 1938. According to Breton's biographer, [[Volker Zotz]], the exhibition of 1947 did not, however, have the same effect as its Parisian forerunner in 1938 and was criticised for being too exclusive. He described post-war Surrealism as an "esoteric circle", while many pieces which had their origin in its roots had achieved world-wide recognition. Duchamp's biographer, [[Calvin Tomkins]], described the exhibition as "the movement's last hurrah". He remarked that the post-war era had found different outlets, namely [[existentialism]] in Europe and [[abstract expressionism]] in the United States. | + | |
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| - | The publication was meant to coincide with the 1947 [[International Surrealist Exhibition]] in Paris, but due to printing delays, the ''Encyclopedia'' was not distributed until months after the exhibition ended. Ironically modeled after the format of a conventional encyclopedia, it [[lambast]]ed social and individual conventions with an unprecedented fervor, as well as putting forth more obscure ideas. | + | |
| Perhaps its most insolent entry was the "[[License to Live]]", a faux governmental form requesting vital statistics from the bearer in order to enforce its legal fiat; the penalty for failing to keep the document "in order" was death. The license was likely an invention of [[Marcel Duchamp]], typographer for the ''Encyclopaedia Da Costa'', and was a gesture that, in keeping with the best of Surrealism, had no obvious relationship to the ''art object'' as it is commonly known. A precursor to "License to Live" appears in an earlier note in Duchamp's ''[[Green Box]]'', published in 1934 but written 20 years earlier, where he imagines a society in which people must pay for the air they breathe. | Perhaps its most insolent entry was the "[[License to Live]]", a faux governmental form requesting vital statistics from the bearer in order to enforce its legal fiat; the penalty for failing to keep the document "in order" was death. The license was likely an invention of [[Marcel Duchamp]], typographer for the ''Encyclopaedia Da Costa'', and was a gesture that, in keeping with the best of Surrealism, had no obvious relationship to the ''art object'' as it is commonly known. A precursor to "License to Live" appears in an earlier note in Duchamp's ''[[Green Box]]'', published in 1934 but written 20 years earlier, where he imagines a society in which people must pay for the air they breathe. | ||
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The Da Costa encyclopédique (Paris: Max-Pol Fouchet, 1947; Encyclopaedia Da Costa) is an encyclopedia published in fascicles by members of Acephale.
The publication was meant to coincide with the Le surréalisme en 1947 in Paris, but due to printing delays, the Encyclopedia was not distributed until months after the exhibition ended. Ironically modeled after the format of a conventional encyclopedia, it lambasted social and individual conventions with an unprecedented fervor, as well as putting forth more obscure ideas.
Perhaps its most insolent entry was the "License to Live", a faux governmental form requesting vital statistics from the bearer in order to enforce its legal fiat; the penalty for failing to keep the document "in order" was death. The license was likely an invention of Marcel Duchamp, typographer for the Encyclopaedia Da Costa, and was a gesture that, in keeping with the best of Surrealism, had no obvious relationship to the art object as it is commonly known. A precursor to "License to Live" appears in an earlier note in Duchamp's Green Box, published in 1934 but written 20 years earlier, where he imagines a society in which people must pay for the air they breathe.
By the end of the century the encyclopedia fell into obscurity, partly because those who created it actively discouraged interested parties from procuring copies.
