"Wyborny trup" i inne zabawy
"Exquisite Corpse" and Other Games

Summary/Abstract: Among all avant-garde movements, Surrealism was the most radical in criticizing rationalism. Academic methods used in exploring the world were replaced with games and provocation as Surrealists believed in effectiveness of pure play that triggered surprise and urged the players to cast off their masks. Surrealists borrowed from techniques of children’s games and invented own games to aim at philistine mentality in a simple and accurate way. The long-term devotion to games stemmed from the fact that Surrealists rejected the fin-de-siècle cult of artistic individuality. At the source of this devotion was their willingness to experience a flash of enlightenment not in an atelier but in a crowded room. To them, the games embodied the willingness to blur lines between real and imaginary, reason and madness, work and play, seriousness and antics, an intellectual occupation and vulgar entertainment. Taborska cites rules and records of some games Surrealists played, the most famous being “Exquisite Corpse”.

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