Various

This is the ultimate collection of archives of all the avant-garde in Belgium from Magritte to Broodthaers, from James Ensor to Christian Dotremont. 220 minutes of rare documents published in three parts / 3 volumes / 3 cds (SR225, SR242, SR269). Edited by Guy Marc Hinant. In this second volume you could hear rare documents including the voice of Magritte explaining why it's impossible to answer to the questions of journalists... Brussels Surrealist Group, 1926 As a nucleus started forming in 1924 around Magritte, Nougé, Lecomte, etc., dissension arose, spawning Correspondance (1924-26) - extensively documented in Volume 1 - and the editorial activities of Magritte and Mesens: the only issue of Oesophage (1925), obviously influenced by Dada (Schwitters was a contributor), and then Marie (1926-27). Distances (1928) will finally bring together all the main forces from Brussels and abroad.... Surrealist territories... The avant-garde is necessarily stateless, but I must carry on with this classification in order to make it heard. There is an urgency to do so. Things are fading out... I am limiting myself to a geographical space comprised between France, Germany and The Netherlands, where the main language is French. This region's experiments and discoveries are missing in French and international anthologies. We will have to take care of it ourselves. This essay, believe me, has more to do with an ultimate, almost desperate attempt than with waving the flag of a region or country (in an advanced state of decay anyway). Again, I am aware of the flaws inherent to any such endeavour. But I could not and would not proceed differently. That is simply how it is. (label info)