Absurd

The work consists of presenting the chosen works and discussing them to compare them, identify what brings them together and bring out the mechanisms of the absurd. The comparative approach, when applied to productions from different fields, deserves a little assistance but opens up interesting perspectives for the field of art history.

The selection aims to link productions that cover a very broad field, from classic works to the most recent, from popular culture to so-called “learned” culture. They have been grouped in such a way as to identify several “study avenues”, which can be addressed on an ad hoc basis or articulated into a long-term course. Each of the tracks is accompanied by a “workshop”, a time for creative manipulation where children can exploit the concepts discussed.

The study of works should, as always, be contextualized (author, period, movement, technique, etc.). Furthermore, when it comes to researching the effects of the absurd, it is important to question questions of gender and convention with children. For example, it is absurd, in reality, to observe an animal talking, but in the context of the “children's story” genre, it is an accepted convention which generally no longer causes an absurd effect.

1- THE PARADOX Meeting of two contradictory or unrelated ideas, in a condensed formulation where above all the humor of surprise is aimed.

• Literature: extracts from Alphonse Allais, Pensées, texts et anecdotes (Le recherche midi, 2000) or from Eric Satie, The reasonings of a stubborn person, followed by Memoirs of an amnesiac (Voix d’encre, 2013).
• Sculpture: Salvador Dali, The Aphrodisiac Telephone (1938).
• Graphic arts: Jacques Carelman, Catalog of untraceable objects (1969).

Workshop: drawn variation of the surrealist exercise of the “exquisite corpse” (in pairs, each works on half of the sheet, the first extends certain lines of his drawing beyond the separation mark and folds the sheet to hide his drawing, the second must start again from the protruding lines).

2- THE WONDERFUL The absurd elements follow one another to construct a world without referents, which seeks to preserve the primary wonder at things.

• Literature (poetic story): Henri Michaux, Ailleurs, “Voyage en grande Garabagne” (1948).
• Painting: Salvador Dali, Persistence of Memory (1931), René Magritte, The Land of Miracles (1964).
• Cinema: Victor Fleming, The Wizard of Oz (1939) or Jean Cocteau, Beauty and the Beast (1946).

Workshop: Describe in several drawings a journey imagined from the following scenario: “At breakfast, your bowl of cereal sucks you in and you are projected into an incredible world. Describe what you discover there and your return. »

3- INVERSION, THE WORLD UPSIDE DOWN Here the absurd is developed and makes very strong reference to the social framework, with a satirical aim.

• Graphic arts: Anonymous, The world reversed (18th century engraving) – Mucem collection, visible on the site The story in pictures.
• Literature (novel): Lewis Caroll, Alice in Wonderland, Chapter VII – “Tea Among Fools” (1865).
• Graphic arts: selection of drawings by Gary Larson, Gary Larson, volumes I to V (Dupuis, 1997-2002

Workshop: write a short story describing a day at school “in reverse”.

4- NONSENSE When the absurd works to undermine logic, without a complex ulterior motive.

• Cinema: A. Astier, A. Kappauf, J.-Y. Robin, Kaamelott, episodes to choose from season 1 or 2 (2005)
• Visual arts: Roman Signer, video performances Action kurhaus (1992), Kayak (2000), Punkt, (2006), Old Shatterband (2007), Zwei schirme (2009) – visible online in a report from the Arte Tracks program (Jan. 2015)
• Literature (poetry, performance): Christophe Tarkos, “Je inflate” and “Tambour et tombola” (1998), in L’année (P.O.L. 2014), also available online.

Workshop: Cut-up proverbs. From a set of proverbs (or poems or very short fables) that we have printed on large sheets of paper, we cut them into fragments corresponding to grammatical entities, then we mix these fragments and recompose them freely to obtain absurd findings.

5. BURLESQUE The absurd mechanics here aims at discordance (trivial/elevated, simple/complex) and exaggeration, distortion. - Literature (novel): Rabelais, Gargantua (1534).

• Cinema: Laurel & Hardy, The Battle of the Century (1927), Buster Keaton, Fridge Mover (1922), The Dismountable House (1920).
• Visual arts: Saverio Lucariello, Vanitas series (from 1995).

Workshop: Using image editing software to disguise/distort a famous painting.

Documents and references

• An article reviewing theories on laughter: Robert Aird, Theories on laughter and humor (August 2015), visible on his site.
• On laughter at the dawn of the 20th century: D. Grojnowski and B. Sarrazin, Fumisteries. Birth of modern humor 1870-1914 (Omnibus, 2011).
• To reflect on the notion of humor in literature (but a number of interesting notions are discussed, which can be of a more general scope): Conference under the direction of B. Gendrel and P. Moran, “Humour, attempt at definition”, École normale supérieure (2005-2006) – visible in full online on fabula.org.
• A reference sheet concerning cinema: Marie-Françoise Leudet, Burlesque and absurd – definitions (January 2013), available in PDF on the lettersvolees.fr. website
• About humor in modern and contemporary art: Jean-Yves Jouannais, Idiocy: art, life, politics – method, (Beaux arts magazine, 2003).
• On the links between burlesque cinema and modern literature: Henri Garric, “Molloy's pockets: for a burlesque reading of literature”, Fabula-LhT, n° 2, “What cinema does to literature (and vice versa)”, December 2006, online at Fabula.org.