Surrealismo, avanguardia e rivoluzione

Abstract

With Dada and then Surrealism, entering a new era, the avant-garde broke with modernity and its “system of references” (Valéry). A counter-modernity emerged which, through the XXth century, freed itself from the modern/anti-modern divide imposed by a certain ideology of history and its discursive models. The word “avant-garde”, which was (and still is) associated with modernity, became radically dissociated from it. Yesterday, today, tomorrow, which are modern categories, were re-evaluated and continue to be so. Then what “avant-garde” means? Not a movement forward (l’avant), but a step towards what comes next (l’après), a bifurcation that demands a change of civilization. Needless to say, it is by no means moribund.