Dada-Surrealism

            Chapter four of RoseLee Goldberg’s Performance Art begins to discus the Surrealism in connection to the previous style of Dadaism. At first, it seemed that surrealism was being described in correlation to the ‘anti-heroes’ and declaration of distaste of politics and/or culture performances of the Dadaists.

            The Surrealist Manifesto publication of 1925 marked the official foundation of the movement (p.88). Goldberg discusses ‘automatism’ and defines surrealism as  “pure psychic automatism, by which an attempt is made to express, either verbally, in writing, or in any other manner, the true functioning of thought” and it’s rested on the belief in the “higher reality of certain hitherto neglected forms or association in the omnipotence of the dream, in the disinterred play of thought” (p.89). This definition became unclear as I was having trouble understanding the difference between the movement from Dadaism. One can not be removed from the other.

Goldberg does argue that this definition gives understanding to the motives from the out of the ordinary performances. The lines seem blurred to me, though, especially when the surrealists ‘accept’ that dada describes their work. But, why? Would not defining and separating themselves (especially when they gave themselves a definition in their premiere manifesto) have avoided the later conflict of their principles (p. 90)?

At the end of chapter four, surrealism seems to be re-defined/ re-assigned as a product of Futurism and Dadaism. Goldberg chronicles the movements as fierce competitors and that surrealism came out on top right before WWII when everything came to an abrupt stop in Europe. I feel that same halt in the chapter when trying to understand the definition of Surrealism.