Cards On The Table

During its history, Surrealism has passed from the stage of an “ideological” corpus to that of an active myth, which provides greater clarity; this modern myth, which it tried to promote for quite some time, proved to be Surrealism itself after all. A modern myth, because Surrealism is also “beyond” philosophy – it is a metaphilosophy, if you wish – and a critical utopia, always “ahead” of its objectives, because it is always aware of its contradictions, this being the true motor of its evolution. A modern myth too, because “the basic requirements for viability of a myth are its capacity to satisfy immediately and to do that in several senses,” wrote Breton in the final pages of Arcane 17.