Flying Stone

The pillaging of André Breton’s studio at 42 Rue Fontaine was finalized in April with an auction of Breton’s possessions, despite the efforts of various demonstrators who called for the French government’s intervention on grounds of cultural preservation. Fortunately, the government declined these misguided invitations, perhaps due to Breton’s reputation as an enemy of the state. Unfortunately, the auction endured. While it is tempting to oppose this dispersal, what should be emphasized is not a nostalgic attachment to the collection, but the way in which Breton lived his life: as a seeker of the poetic eruption within the real. The walls of our personal cathedrals will only be adorned with the seditious gold of time, not ancestral relics.

Brandon Freels