ONE SELF PORTRAIT EVERY DAY in 2020 : 160

A few years ago I was in the British Library looking at publications made by Surrealist artists. One of the publications was “La Révolution surréaliste” n8 from December 1926. On the cover there is a photo a person staring at a passing priest and the caption says “Notre collaborateur Benjamin Péret injuriant un prêtre.”

Péret was a surrealist poet and also editor of that magazine.

I wonder what really happened when that photo was taken. Did he really insult the priest? was it staged?

Here is what I imagine happened:

Imagine Péret. He’s standing in a street in a small town somewhere in France. It’s summer and it’s noon. Péret and his friend had spent the whole morning making art and photographing it for a surrealist magazine they were putting together. Imagine Péret, he’s pacing around in front of a skip, angry and frustrated. He has a feeling he can’t explain with clarity. Art should be something stronger, something deeper, something violent. He stops, and turns to his friend who is sitting on the kerb fiddling with his camera: “ It’s all fucked up. Galleries, museums and art shops filled with fucking shit. Artists have become so good at making stuff that looks so much like art it’s difficult to work out what’s what. I need to … I feel like I want to head-butt the mayor or kick an elderly person, Ineed to say fuck you to a priest …” At that moment, his friend notices the priest walking in their direction and says “Jean’s walking towards us, go on, tell him to fuck off”. When the priest is close enough, Péret looks at him and says “FUCK YOU”. The priest turns towards Péret, [CLICK] the photograph is taken. Péret then says: “don’t worry, I wasn’t talking to you”. The priest walks off.

8.6.2020.

---