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L'Exposition Anticoloniale: Political or Aesthetic Protest?

Lynn E. Palermo French Cultural Studies 2009 20: 27 DOI: 10.1177/0957155808099342 The online version of this article can be found at: http://frc.sagepub.com/content/20/1/27

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French Cultural Studies

LExposition Anticoloniale
Political or Aesthetic Protest?
LYNN E. PALERMO Susquehanna University, Selinsgrove, PA, USA

In response to the 1931 Paris Exposition Coloniale, Andr Thirion and Louis Aragon organised the Exposition Anti-imprialiste in an attempt to bring about collaboration between Communists and Surrealists on political activity under the auspices of the Communist Party. However, tensions arose immediately, often as personal spats. Thirions section of the exhibition adhered to the didactic method favoured by the Party. In contrast, Aragons section, ostensibly dealing with the cultural impact of colonialism, reveals a distinctly surrealist approach with its irreverent tone and rich ambiguity. In this paper, I argue that the conflict between Aragon and Thirion was rooted in their respective notions of revolution, and therefore politics, resulting in an Exposition Anti-imprialiste containing two fundamentally different (even opposing) protests to French colonialism. Aragons section of the exposition also reveals his commitment to surrealist ideals, even as he was moving toward his break with Andr Breton. Keywords: Exposition Anticoloniale, Louis Aragon, Exposition Anti-imprialiste, Exposition Coloniale, surrealism, Andr Thirion, La Vrit sur les colonies

On 2 May 1931, the spectacular Exposition Coloniale began deploying its exotic charms to millions of visitors as part of a broader effort by the French government to donner aux Franais conscience de leur Empire.1 To counter this wave of pro-colonial propaganda launched by a republican regime, an anti-imperialist exhibition called La Vrit sur les colonies (but also referred to as the contre-exposition, the Exposition Anticoloniale, and the Exposition Anti-imprialiste) opened its doors at Avenue Mathurin-Moreau (XIXe arrondissement) on 19 September 1931.2
French Cultural Studies, 20(1): 2746 Copyright SAGE Publications (Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore and Washington DC) http://frc.sagepub.com [200902] 10.1177/0957155808099342

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Backed by the Ligue contre limprialisme et loppression coloniale, the anti-imperialist exhibition was mounted chiefly by Andr Thirion, a Communist Party activist also affiliated with the Surrealists, and Louis Aragon, a founder of the surrealist movement, but who would abandon Andr Breton and the movement for the Communist Party in 1932. According to the Communist Bulletin Colonial, the aim of the Exposition Anticoloniale was as follows:
Dmasquons les faux civilisateurs, dmasquons les bourreaux des rvolutionnaires annamites, dnonons les massacres par laviation, dmasquons les profiteurs de la sueur et du sang des ouvriers et paysans des colonies Mais dmasquons aussi les allis de cette bande de requins sinistres, cest--dire les bourgeois et fodaux qui viendront nombreux parader Vincennes.3

In this essay, my goal will be analogous: that is, to look behind the expositions obvious protest against French imperialism to examine the diverging motivations and goals of the exhibitions principal organisers that resulted in a somewhat disjointed, even contradictory, exhibition against French imperialism. I argue that the expositions conflicting message concerning the primary offences of French colonial policy and how to combat them arose from the conflicting core values held by the Communist Party and surrealist fellow-travellers concerning the very notion of revolution. Conceived by the Ligue contre limprialisme et loppression coloniale under the auspices of the Communist Party, the Anti-Colonial Exhibition was housed in the headquarters of Parisian workers unions, originally Konstantin Melnikofs Soviet constructivist pavilion built for the Exposition des Arts Dcoratifs of 1925. Charles-Robert Ageron (1984: 571) has commented on the sparse attendance at the anti-imperialist event, yet organisers apparently considered public interest sufficiently strong to justify its continuance into February 1932 beyond the conclusion of the Exposition Coloniale itself.4 Few verbal and visual traces remain of the counter-exposition;5 however, enough has survived to reveal motivations behind the protest exhibition as more complex than a simple desire to expose le dessous de lexposition coloniale, to borrow an expression from the Bulletin Colonial (LExposition coloniale de Vincennes, 1931).6 I will begin by describing the anti-colonial exhibition itself in as much detail as the few remaining documents permit, focusing especially on the political exhibitions organised by Andr Thirion, on the one hand, and the cultural exhibits organised by Louis Aragon (with other surrealist collaborators), on the other. Then, after tracing the expositions origins, I will examine the accounts of its evolution and execution provided by Thirion and Aragon in their memoirs, placing those accounts in the context of surrealist and communist activities at the time.

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A tour of the Exposition Anticoloniale A 4 July 1931 article in LHumanit entitled, LExposition anti-imprialiste se prpare: elle montrera la vrit sur les colonies, described the imminent counter-exposition as un raccourci vivant sur limprialisme sous son vrai jour: la conqute, lappropriation des terres, le travail forc, lenseignement et lhygine, la rpression et les mouvements pour lindpendance, la femme et lenfant (1931: 4). In addition to political documentation, the exposition would include cultural and entertainment components:
dexcellents dcorateurs exposeront dans un cadre appropri des objets dart prts gratuitement par les amis de la Ligue et provenant de toutes les colonies. On prpare aussi une srie de confrences avec projections. Au cours de lexposition qui durera plus dun mois auront lieu deux ou trois journes de gala. Le samedi et le dimanche, des churs parls, des musiques ouvrires, des orchestres ngres, des groupes dartistes coloniaux, bnvoles se feront entendre. (1931: 4)

One of the most detailed, firsthand accounts of the anti-colonial exhibition can be found in LExposition Anti-imprialiste: La Vrit sur les colonies (description sommaire), apparently written as an internal memo, perhaps to the Ligue anti-imprialiste. According to this report, the exhibition took place on two floors. A political exhibit organised by Thirion occupied the ground floor (rez-de-chausse), while exhibits focusing on the cultural and religious impact of colonialism, organised by Aragon and Georges Sadoul, were upstairs (premier tage). The final room of the exhibition, also occupying the upper floor, which outlined Soviet and more broadly communist responses to colonialism, was mounted by Thirion. The ground-floor exhibit opened with posters quoting communist pacifist writers Henri Barbusse (who had joined the Communist Party in 1923) and Romain Rolland (a fellow traveller) on colonialism, while Lenins slogan limprialisme est la dernire tape du capitalisme figured prominently on a banner above. Six panels summarised tous les crimes des conqutes, as well as crises such as Fashoda, which had threatened to kindle war between European rivals in their race to colonise Africa. Enlarged photographs provided graphic proof of colonial brutality and terrorism together with military conquests and the cruel punishment of peoples who had resisted European domination. Two posters ironically titled Mise en valeur and Exploitation exhibited photographic documentation of forced labour in sub-Saharan Africa, especially road construction and le portage.7 Accompanying tables outlined the suffering of colonised peoples engendered by the global economic crisis. Especially in areas where policies of mise en valeur had transformed diverse

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subsistence economies to more limited intensive productions to increase metropolitan profit margins, the result had been precarious colonial economies increasingly dependent upon French and European prosperity; consequently, as France slid into economic depression, the colonies, which were legally bound to trade exclusively with la Mtropole, inevitably followed with even greater disaster (Suret-Canale, 1971: 297).8 The final section of Thirions exhibit dealt with political oppression around the world, including lynchings in the United States. To demonstrate that the moment for worldwide revolution was approaching, the display concluded with updates on communist activity in China, India and Turkey. Occupying the upper floor of the pavilion was the cultural and religious section, organised by Aragon with the collaboration of Sadoul.9 The memo qualified this exhibit as particulirement originale et vivante par le contenu et la prsentation (LExposition Anti-imprialiste: La Vrit sur les colonies (description sommaire), 1931: 2). The display consisted mainly of statues, masks and other objects created by indigenous peoples of the French colonies. Some of the items, the report points out smugly, were on loan by friends and members of the Ligue anti-imprialiste, who avaient pralablement refus de les accorder aux organisateurs de lexposition imprialiste de Vincennes. The objects were divided into three groups: art ngre, ocanien, et peau-rouge. Accompanying labels, rather than provide cultural, historical or aesthetic context, exposed the destruction of such objects under colonial rule: missionaries burned them pour consacrer les progrs du christianisme (1931: 3). In the same room, such ftiches as both communist and republican newspapers tended to call them were provocatively juxtaposed with cheap French religious statuettes ironically labelled ftiches europennes. The irreverent tone of the cultural and religious exhibition evaporated when the visitor entered the other room upstairs, where Thirions final exhibit, outlining the USSRs answer to colonialism, which vis[ait] surtout opposer au colonialisme imprialiste lexemple de la politique des nationalits applique par les Soviets (1931: 4). A poster surrounded by photographs documenting socialist progress incited the visitor to advance the revolutionary cause. Maps illustrated claims of les progrs conomiques et culturels made by the Kirghiz, Tartar and Bashkir peoples. A large panel demonstrating progress on the construction of the Turksib railway stood in pointed contrast to the one downstairs documenting colonial forced labour on the railroads of West Africa. Alongside a selection of Russian anti-religious posters, the works of Marx and Lenin were shown to have been translated into 70 languages, a boast reminiscent of the multilingual translations of the Bible by missionaries. Finally, photographs picturing the construction of housing, public works, furnaces, cultural centres and kolkhoses, were assembled as part of le plan

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quinquennal et lmulation socialiste. According to the report, this last room of the counter-exposition was arranged and presented dans un style direct et sr. To soften the dry statistics and increase the displays popular appeal, a table stood piled high with wood handicrafts qui ont toujours le plus vif succs auprs des travailleurs parisiens, noted the report in a patronising tone (1931: 4). In addition to the exhibits themselves, visitors to La Vrit sur les colonies were treated to radio broadcasts, phonograph recordings of exotic songs, a Moorish caf, performances by colonial choruses, and special lectures, whose function seemed to be similar to that of the handicrafts mentioned above to add entertainment value to an exhibition intended to educate, in ways that sound uncomfortably similar to the events designed to attract crowds to the Colonial Exposition at Vincennes, as Panivong Norindr has noted (1996: 61).10 In sum, then, the political exhibits in the Exposition Anticoloniale largely communicated through weighty, didactic exhortations, reinforced by photographs and statistics. The Soviet Union was presented as a model of expansion that respected local traditions and elevated the standard of living for all. Appropriate action to be taken in response to Western European colonialism was clearly delineated. The cultural and religious displays, on the other hand, used ambiguity and humour with a dose of exoticism to make a rather open-ended protest against the cultural destruction caused by colonialism. The origins of the Exposition Anticoloniale As stated earlier, the impetus behind the Exposition Anticoloniale came from the Ligue contre limprialisme et loppression coloniale. Thirions memoirs entitled Rvolutionnaires sans rvolution (discussed in more detail below) name Alfred Kurella, a member of the group, as the individual who set the project in motion (Thirion, 1972). A front organisation for the Communists, the Ligues links to the Party would initially remain hidden to avoid une interdiction ou tout au moins la retarder le plus possible; however, as the expositions presence was tolerated by the authorities, the Ligue Communiste planned to make its connections and backing gradually more public (Note sur LExposition Anticoloniale, 1931: n.p.). A plan for organising an anti-imperialist exhibition had been mentioned as early as 2 February 1931, in an internal Communist Party memo. The exposition is listed among other anti-colonial political activity, such as publishing articles in LHumanit and other Communist-affiliated publications to expose the goals of the Exposition Coloniale; distributing tracts; organising demonstrations and anti-colonial conferences during the course of the Exposition Coloniale; and organising activities meant to

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establish contact with workers and the indigenous people brought to Paris to work at the Exposition at Vincennes. A subsequent confidential memo, dated 29 September 1931 ten days after the opening of the Exposition Anti-imprialiste also specified the ultimate goal of the exposition and its associated political activities: En particulier, le principal objectif dorganisation de lExposition est darriver recruter rapidement le plus grand nombre possible dadhsions individuelles et collectives la Ligue anti-imprialiste (my emphasis), and to collect enough receipts to enable the Ligue to function by its own means (Note sur lExposition Anticoloniale, 1931: n.p.). As Thirion notes in his memoirs, the French Communist Party was at a low point in 1931 in terms of funds and membership (1972: 27, 275). Thus protest against French imperialism could serve the more self-interested goal of bolstering the Party. As we shall see, the counter-exposition also became a locus of tensions between the Communist Party and surrealist collaborators, the former with their increasing desire to require that artists and writers conform to an officially sanctioned aesthetic, and the latter convinced that surrealism best expressed the notion of continuous revolution espoused by the Communists. Having given this overview of the exposition, we now turn to the writings of Thirion, and then of Aragon, to gain insight into their perspectives on the exposition, as well as the motivations behind their involvement in its organisation. Thirions account of the Exposition Anticoloniale By the time Andr Thirion joined the Surrealists at rue du Chteau in 1927, he was already a member of the Communist Party and an experienced organiser. According to his account in Rvolutionnaires sans rvolution (1972), in spring 1931, Alfred Kurella, the driving force behind the Ligue contre limprialisme and the Exposition Anticoloniale, approached him as an associate of the Surrealists.11 Kurella proposed that Thirion undertake the organisation of a counter-exposition because he was angry with what he considered the relative passivity of the Communist Party before the spectacle of the Exposition Coloniale:
Il ny a gure que les surralistes qui aient fait preuve dune hostilit intelligente contre cette entreprise [lExposition Coloniale], qui aient marqu leur dgot pour une activit spcifique.12 Pourquoi ne feriezvous pas quelque chose de plus important sous lgide de la Ligue anti-imprialiste? Que pensez-vous dune contre-exposition? En tant que responsable mondial de la Ligue, je mets ta disposition le pavillon des Soviets et quelques crdits. Je te confie la direction de cette entreprise, tu y reprsenteras la Ligue, dbrouille-toi avec tes amis. (Thirion, 1972: 319)

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At the time, Thirions place within the Communist Party was uncertain. In January of that year, Thirion had resigned from the Party after being brought before the Commission de contrle on charges of insubordination that included accepting Aragons and Sadouls membership of the Party and writing for Le Surralisme au service de la rvolution without Party authorisation. Anxious, by his own admission, to re-establish himself as a communist militant, he accepted Kurellas challenge.13 As Thirion tells it, he planned the anti-colonial exhibition to consist of three parts: an ideological section, which would present Leninist theory on imperialism; a cultural section dealing with the problems of indigenous peoples under imperialism; and a religious section consisting of an expos of missionary activity in the colonies. This first section, planned for the ground floor of the pavilion, Thirion reserved for himself. Although he qualifies this space as la partie la moins avenante du btiment, it also happened to be the most spacious area of the pavilion and the part of the exposition most likely to be visited. To Aragon, Thirion assigned a display addressing cultural problems; to Georges Sadoul, a display dealing with religious missionary activity both of these on the upper floor of the pavilion. From written accounts of the exhibition, these last two sections seem to have merged through Aragons collaboration with Sadoul and other Surrealists.14 According to Thirions memoirs, his own display consisted of the usual posters and slogans, photographs, facts and figures, which he assembled with the help of some friends (Thirion, 1972: 320); at the same time, he appreciated the unorthodox, provocative character of Aragons display: a pice principale amnage par Tanguy et meuble par luard et Aragon de ftiches, dobjets sauvages et de quelques-unes des bondieuseries les plus sottes de la rue Saint-Sulpice, avait trs grand air (Thirion, 1972: 320). However, before long Thirion began to feel resentment toward the Surrealists, whose attitude and work ethic he found lacking. For example, he seemed exasperated to see the loudspeakers intended to broadcast des commentaires politiques et inciter les promeneurs qui montaient vers les Buttes-Chaumont venir voir La Vrit sur les colonies, used instead by Aragon and Elsa Triolet to project exotic music, despite his shared taste for such music (Thirion, 1972: 320). Perhaps more annoying yet was that Aragon (especially) had somehow ended up the star of the exposition, eclipsing Thirion, the communist drone, with clat. Mais ne me devait-il pas cette position de vedette? he asks. For Thirion, the counter-exposition was serious on a personal level because he considered his own standing in the Communist Party to be at stake; and the light-hearted, perhaps even sensual tone it set was very possibly not the one that Thirion had envisioned for the exhibition. The lack of visits by members of the Bureau politique du parti must have been less than reassuring. In contrast to his sober investment of hard work

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and long hours, he judged the behaviour of Aragon, Paul luard, and Triolet to be frivolous for example, wasting energies on such unpromising visitors as un jeune couple qui navait rien de proltaire (Thirion, 1972: 320).15 Evidently, the spirits of Aragon and Sadoul had not been dampened for long after being disciplined by the Party following the second International Congrs des crivains rvolutionnaires in Kharkov (which I will come back to later) the previous November.16 [Ils] ntaient plus les chiens battus du mois de dcembre. Ils avaient repris leur assurance et leurs places (Thirion, 1972: 320).17 A petulant Thirion even confessed to detecting a note of condescension in their dealings with him. Thirions impatience at the behaviour and attitude of Aragon and his surrealist cohorts might also have stemmed from his frustration at watching Aragon and Sadoul perform antics that could only reinforce the Partys scepticism toward collaboration with the Surrealists.18 Deliberations at the Congress in Kharkov had made it clear that the Communist Party was moving towards imposing a creative aesthetic of socialist-realism in its effort to develop a body of international proletarian literature which signalled continued decreasing tolerance for the provocative character of surrealist expression.19 As principal organiser of the exhibition, Thirion was likely to be implicated in any sanctions doled out by the committee; therefore, the Surrealists seemingly flippant protest put his attempt to rehabilitate himself at risk. Thirion, for his part, in setting up an exhibit well within the style approved by the Party, had decided in a sense to sacrifice surrealist ideals for political appurtenance, despite his objections to the censorious spirit revealed in the confession signed by Aragon and Sadoul at Kharkov:
Avait-on besoin de demander nos amis de saccuser de ne pas avoir t des militants assidus et de rpudier le trotskisme sauf vouloir indiquer par l que leurs convictions politiques et leur volont daction rvolutionnaire pouvaient tre mises en doute? Plus machiavliques taient laffirmation que le Second Manifeste dAndr Breton contrarie [sic] (dans une certaine mesure) la dialectique, ainsi que la rpudiation du freudisme comme idologie idaliste. Limprcision des termes, dont naurait pas voulu un instituteur primaire, permettait de condamner toute activit surraliste, darrter la cration littraire en 1880, de confiner les crivains dans un naturalisme de patronage. Peut-tre tait-ce l lessentiel! (Thirion, 1972: 302)

Thirions unease was not unfounded: two months after the counterexposition opened, he would be expelled from the Party. The letter from the Party containing the verdict on the indictments listed his offences as actes dindiscipline renouvels, including having dlivr indment des cartes du parti deux de ses amis. Subsequently, Thirion learned that his suspension had been fabricated as a means of blocking Aragon and Sadoul from joining the Party (Thirion, 1972: 325).

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Aragons account of the Exposition Anticoloniale Whereas Thirion seemed preoccupied by regaining the favour of the Communist Party through participation in the Exposition Anticoloniale, Aragon appears to have been motivated primarily by the prospect of organising an important exhibition of indigenous art from the colonies. Louis Aragon relates events connected with the exposition in Luvre potique (1975) in far less detail than does Thirion. But, more to the point, his brief account of the counter-exposition differs so much from Thirions version in perspective and emphasis that the two of them scarcely seem to be describing the same event. Thirion treats Aragons upper-floor exhibit as peripheral; in contrast, Aragon terms his section lessentiel of the Exposition Anti-imprialiste. In fact, Aragon neglects even to mention the ground-floor political exhibit or Thirions organising role, instead taking full credit for the exhibitions conception and genesis: javais russi mentendre avec la CGTU pour organiser une Exposition Anticoloniale qui se trouvait sur un terrain appartenant cette organisation [et qui tait] le pavillon constructiviste des Soviets lExposition des Arts dcoratifs en 1925 (Aragon, 1975: 180).20 Such an omission might be explained by the rivalry between the two Surrealists/Communists, as Norindr has suggested (1996: 63). However, Aragons focus on his own cultural section at the expense of the rest of the exhibition might equally reflect a different set of priorities, for when reading his account, it is difficult to think of his contribution as purely political protest. Though he uses the term Exposition Anticoloniale in his memoirs, his personal investment in its organisation seems to have stemmed less from a desire to decry imperialistic injustices, than to amass a collection of sculptures africaines, ocaniennes et amricaines, dune ampleur jamais vue Paris (1975: 180). Norindr refers to this section of the anti-imperialist exhibition as an ethnographic exhibit; however, I would argue that Aragon conceived of and set up the display more as an art exhibit.21 Aragons use of the word sculptures rather than objets is telling; moreover, he relates how he was able to mount this exhibit grce la participation des principaux collectionneurs de lart des pays coloniss (my emphasis; Aragon, 1975: 180). Furthermore, Aragon describes the exposition in the context of a series of surrealist political acts, including the distribution of two tracts protesting the Exposition Coloniale,22 which, he says, had also served to soothe some of the groups internal tensions arising from the personal attacks in Bretons Deuxime manifeste du surralisme a year earlier (Breton, 1962). This all points to chiefly political and aesthetic preoccupations. In my view, this merging of political and aesthetic concerns in Aragons exhibition is central to understanding the divergent messages contained in Exposition Anticoloniale.

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For Aragon the Surrealist, aesthetics and politics were woven together; in fact, aesthetics was political. In 1924, the first Manifeste du surralisme had established surrealism as a fusion of aesthetics and life, calling surrealism a lifestyle, not simply an art. The second manifesto declared the inherent political nature of surrealism through its call for continual revolution (or liberation) of the mind. Aragon reaffirmed the political nature of surrealism in December 1931 in Le Surralisme et le devenir rvolutionnaire, by emphasising its link to dialectic materialism (Aragon, 1931):
Que le surralisme, dans le cadre du matrialisme dialectique, soit la seule mthode qui rende compte des rapports rels du monde et de la pense, je le crois plus que jamais, moi qui ai vu le matrialisme dialectique entasser des pierres, et parce que jai vu les hommes transformer le monde avec la dialectique matrialiste. (Aragon, 1975: 280)23

Like Norindr, Jody Blake questions whether Aragons exhibit displaying objects from the colonies, along with exotic entertainment and events, ultimately put art in the service of the communist revolution, much as it served to reinforce the civilising mission at the Bois de Vincennes. Did Aragons exhibit go beyond the same kind of appropriation of art for a political agenda? If we view Aragons exhibition as distinct in purpose and strategy from the sections mounted by Thirion, multiple readings emerge. In part, the juxtaposition of primitive objects and Western objects reversed the primitive-to-civilised academic aesthetic progression that buttressed Frances civilising mission at the Exposition Coloniale. On the other hand, in Aragons exhibit, primitive objects were not being compared to French art, but rather French kitsch. While there was still an implicit comparison between Western and primitive, this complicates the civilised/savage dichotomy. It may have been relatively easy for the French government to convince the general public of the superiority of French art to indigenous African or Oceanic hand-crafted pieces, especially given the European value favouring aesthetic objects over functional ones. But the superiority of Western, mass-produced kitsch over indigenous hand-crafted objects often demonstrating high levels of craftsmanship was less evident.24 The concept of exhibiting primitive handcrafted objects to showcase their aesthetic qualities was still a relatively new concept in France, though not without precedent. In 1930, for example, Tristan Tzara (one of the collectors who loaned works for the anti-colonial exposition) had organised an exhibition of African statues as art, rather than as ethnographic objects at the Galerie Pigalle.25 Critics covering the exhibit generally accepted the premise, while debating the degree of their aesthetic value.26 In LIntransigeant, Maurice Reynal actually lamented how wider

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study of these objects as art was stripping away their exotic qualities, and with them, their mystery:
Fini le temps o nous cherchions au march aux puces, chez les brocanteurs de la Ferraille, dans les bars des ports o les marins les cdaient contre une chopine. Les voici catalogus, identifis, tiquets. Plus de merveilleux. Leur mystre est dvoil, lon connat leurs pdigres, on leur a donn des ges que dailleurs lon na pas marchands, on les a astiqus, dsinfects, asexus et assurs Ils sont propres et brillants comme des meubles du Faubourg SaintAntoine. On les a installs sur de petits socles faits de bois rares; jen ai mme vu que lon a rpar, on la dot dune belle paire de jambes artificielles, et nul doute quun ministre les inaugure bientt,27 quils regarderont merveills et un peu gns dans leur nudit, de tous leurs yeux de verre ou de boutons de culotte. Cest dire que voici nos bons ngres dfinitivement promus au rang de pices de muses. (Reynal, 1930: n.p.)

Acceptance of such objects as art thus provoked conflicting feelings, as the French sense of exoticism diminished with increased familiarity and the sense of having tamed the savage.28 Elevation in status from exotic, savage cultural object to domesticated aesthetic object was accompanied by a sense that these objects would lose some of their power to astonish. The passage from ethnographic to artistic, from unknown and mysterious to dated and catalogued effectively bringing these objects into the realm of the rational implied a transition from exotic (and avant-garde) to mainstream and eventually even canonical: La science nous enlve encore une illusion bien jolie. force de tant savoir, on ne sais quelle ignorance se confier.29 These primitive objects were attractive as much for what they were not, as for what they were. Integrating them in the realm of art on the same plane as French art would diminish their power. Ces merveilleux objets vont finir par se prendre excessivement au srieux. Sans doute exigerontils leur entre au Louvre, lamented Reynal. An important part of their fascination was precisely their divergence from what was approved by the Academy and, by extension, bourgeois society. In this sense, to avantgarde eyes, primitive embodied a spirit of rebellion and therefore, creative liberation. In Aragons display, juxtaposing primitive objects with some of the worst mass-produced kitsch that a modern industrial republican empire had to offer was clearly being used to undermine the assumptions of French aesthetic and cultural superiority that were being presented as self-evident truths at the Exposition Coloniale.30 Destabilising these truths without simply reversing them opened the mind to the possibility of alternative value systems, which in turn provoked doubts about the relationship of the French coloniser to the colonised peoples, since

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(according to official reasoning) one would presume a more highly evolved civilisation to possess a more refined aesthetic sense than a primitive culture. As a result, assumed definitions of normal in this case, civilised and primitive or freakish are also brought into question. As Susan Stewart points out in her discussion of souvenirs in On Longing, through the freak we derive an image of the normal; to know an ages typical freaks is, in fact, to know its points of standardization (Stewart, 1993: 133). This principle certainly operated on the colonial exposition fairgrounds at the Bois de Vincennes, where the public saw, in a compact space, France representing the norm, in contrast to the colonial world in all its exotic freakishness. In fact, art exhibitions at the Exposition Coloniale heightened the sense of strangeness for visitors. As Patricia Morton observes, the influence of primitive art was well established in Paris by 1931, yet any primitivist tendencies that might expose a cross-fertilisation between coloniser and colonised were edited out [of art exhibitions at the Exposition Coloniale] to preserve the bipolar equation that justified colonialism (Morton 2000: 88). Thus no primitivist art was included in the art exhibitions at the Bois de Vincennes; on the contrary, painting and sculpture were heavily academic, accentuating French arts classical heritage. The irony implicit in Aragons staged juxtaposition collapses absolutely defined aesthetics, and with it any evidence that aesthetics might be presumed to provide support to the Eurocentric notions of evolutionary civilisation thus bringing down the easy dichotomy of civilised versus savage. At the Bois de Vincennes, departure from the norm meant freakishness; for Aragon, departure from the norm meant liberation. Aragons cultural exhibit in the Exposition Anticoloniale must also be considered in the context of his own political and creative evolution. Geoghegan shows that the two years surrounding the Exposition Anticoloniale marked a period of painful transition for Aragon during which he tried to reconcile the interests, principles and aesthetics of surrealism with those of the Communist Party, gradually edging toward his break with Breton in favour of communist engagement (Geoghegan, 1978: 20). At the second International Congress of Proletariat Writers (RAPP) in Kharkov in the fall of 1930, Aragon (accompanied by Sadoul) acted as ad hoc French delegate, and argued for surrealism as the intellectual current best fitting the communist agenda of permanent revolution. Yet, before his departure from Kharkov, he (and Sadoul), under pressure from the French Communist Party (PCF), signed the autocritique, thereby denouncing surrealism (including major points of Bretons Second Surrealist Manifesto), withdrawing criticisms of PCF policies in France, and accepting control of the PCF over their literary activities. Then, upon his return to France, Aragon was persuaded by Breton to sign the tract

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titled Aux intellectuels rvolutionnaires, reversing his stance taken in the autocritique, and renewing his support for surrealism. Following this series of events and shifting positions, Aragon was left on the margins of the Communist Party in Moscow, the PCF, and the Surrealists, fully trusted by none (Geoghegan, 1978). Late in 1931, while the Exposition Anticoloniale was still attracting visitors, Aragon published Le Surralisme et le devenir rvolutionnaire in Le Surralisme au Service de la Rvolution, another example of Aragons efforts to reconcile surrealism and communism, though tilting increasingly toward the latter (Geoghegan, 1978: 20). In 1932, Aragon published the poem Front Rouge, which led to his arrest on charges of conspiring to incite violence. The Surrealists, led by Breton, circulated a petition in his defence, arguing that while poetry might have a revolutionary role to play, it was a work of the imagination, and should therefore not be taken literally (Geoghegan, 1978: 21). Even at this point, Aragon failed to act decisively: it took him two months to condemn the surrealist petition. On the other side, LHumanit accused the Surrealists of paying mere lip service to the revolution. As is well known, the Second manifeste du surralisme (1930), with its excommunication of several members and declaration of the movements inherently political nature specifically its declaration of solidarity with communisms idea of continual revolution created deep rifts in the surrealist movement. According to Aragon, during this contentious time, condemnation of colonialism and organised religion were the only two questions upon which all factions could still agree. In the course of their discussions,
la question stant pose de chercher, de trouver une plate-forme commune dunion, on en tait arrive conclure que lunanimit ne pouvait se faire quen laissant la libert chacun dagir sa guise, en sunissant sur une question restreinte, mais propos de laquelle se faisait lunanimit: la lutte contre la religion. (Aragon 1975: 178)

Of course, colonialism and clericalism were also issues where the Surrealists and Communists shared some common ground. Anti-religion being an issue that Aragon took seriously, he (and Sadoul) had collaborated on a Communist-affiliated newspaper whose title made its mission clear: La Lutte antireligieuse et proltarienne, published by the Union Fdrale des libres-penseurs rvolutionnaires de France (a section of lInternationale des libres-penseurs proltariens) (Aragon, 1975: 179). Conclusion In light of Aragons political and creative turmoil in the early 1930s, his section of the Exposition Anti-imprialiste dealing with the cultural and

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religious implications of colonialism can be seen as one of his attempts to bring together surrealist and communist concerns, and straddle their different and profoundly conflicting values and goals. His integration of aesthetics and politics was a mise-en-scne of surrealist political action. The technique of creating astonishing juxtapositions, as in the case of combining hand-crafted primitive sculpture with Western industrial kitsch was, of course, an established surrealist device conceived to reveal and destabilise ides reues. But what also fundamentally distinguished his section of the Exposition Anticoloniale is that visitors were prodded into questioning societal assumptions and the status quo, without being provided with clear answers or solutions; whereas Thirions sections posited Soviet-style expansion as the answer to colonialism, and engagement in the Communist Party as appropriate action for individuals who wished to change the social order. It is clear from the various written accounts of the Exposition Anticoloniale that visitors reacted to Aragons exhibit differently than to the other sections as something provocative, humorous, even refreshing. The ambiguous structure of his display pushed the mind open to new possibilities, performing the type of psychological revolution that the Surrealists sought as an essential stage preceding social and political revolution. An exhibit of this style, though presented in the context of communist propaganda, effectively avoided serving that specific cause because it proposed no concrete solution to the problem of colonialism. Consequently, Aragon avoided using art to any partisan agenda, whether republican France with its promotion of imperialism, or the Communist Party with its sanction of socialist realism. In fact, given the nature of Aragons exhibit, the Marxist quote, Un peuple qui en opprime dautres ne saurait tre libre, which hung in the background, also takes on multiple meanings, especially as Aragon was being pulled in so many directions. In that period of his life, the slogan could have been referring to imperialism, the Communist Party, or even Andr Breton, for his efforts to maintain control over his group of Surrealists.31 The lack of clarity, however, is significant in that it reveals to what extent Aragon was still invested in the surrealist vision of revolution, even as he gravitated toward commitment to the Communist Party. In this sense, the Exposition Anticoloniale as a whole seems to have been at odds with itself: effectively, it contained two separate exhibitions, with the cultural/religious display reflecting surrealist revolutionary values, and Thirions political exhibits adhering to the Party line on political and social revolution. It appears, then, that the friction between Thirion and Aragon during the Exposition Anticoloniale stemmed from larger, irreconcilable differences between the collectivist and ultimately conformist but often efficient political revolt espoused by the Communist Party, and the individualist, irreverent, psychological revolution envisioned by the Surrealists with their joie de vivre and unfocused

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political activity. Part of Aragons goal was undoubtedly to expose the French republics complicity in harnessing aesthetics and the arts to construct cultural hierarchies that would support colonial policy. And, as Blake, Norindr and others have noted, the Surrealists were not above indulging in a certain amount of unexamined exoticism. But by mounting an exhibition replete with ambiguities, and therefore explicitly not contributing to the communist didactics employed in Thirions sections, Aragon equally demonstrated a refusal to allow surrealism to become the servant of the Communist Party or any political movement. The exhibitions additional anti-religious layer may have provided other common political ground for Surrealists and Communists, but Aragons protest against the churchs stranglehold on the creative mind precisely the type of colonialism which the Surrealists found most repugnant also opened the door to provocative parallels with the Communist Partys authoritative approach. Perhaps these are all reasons why, like Aragon, we might term his cultural display lessentiel of the Exposition Anti-imprialiste. Notes
1. For detailed critical readings of the Exposition Coloniale, see Paul Reynaud, Ministre des Colonies, as quoted in Ageron (1984: 573). See also Hodeir and Pierre (1991), Lebovics (1992) and Morton (2000). 2. In his memoirs (1972), Andr Thirion gives 20 September as the opening date; however, the report filed by Roger Gaillard in a 2 December 1931 document addressed to the secretariat of the Ligue Internationale states that the anti-exposition opened on 19 September (Note sur lExposition Anticoloniale, 1931). 3. LExposition Coloniale de Vincennes (1931). 4. The question of whether or not the counter-exposition was well attended depends on perspective. In Note sur lExposition Anticoloniale (1931) Roger Gaillard recorded total attendance to that point at 4266 visitors (with still two months before closing). He also noted that Sunday was always the most popular of the three days per week that the counter-exposition was open, and the single day on which the greatest number of visitors had been recorded (488) was a Sunday in November. In his memoirs cum poetry, Aragon (1975: 180) also implies that the exhibition was well attended. In reference to his colonial art exhibit, he says that le pavillon ne dsemplissait pas. 5. Artefacts documenting the anti-colonial exposition include two photographs of the Surrealists exhibit, which appeared in Le Surralisme au Service de la Rvolution (December 1931), photographs of the Melnikof pavilion (dating from the Exposition des Arts Dcoratifs), the memoirs of Andr Thirion and Louis Aragon, a few articles in LHumanit, and a few Communist Party memos. 6. The first detailed examination of La Vrit sur les colonies, written by Hodeir and Pierre (1991: 12534) was for the most part descriptive. See Norindr (1996: 5271), Spector (1997: 1779), Morton (2000: 98110) and Blake (2002: 3558) for critical readings.

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7. Le portage became the subject of impassioned parliamentary debate and restrictive laws after the publication of Voyage au Congo (1927) by Andr Gide. 8. See also Stora (2001) for statistics on Algeria, and Pennell (2000) on Morocco. During the course of the Exposition Coloniale, LHumanit published a number of articles dealing with economic misery in the colonies. 9. Because Sadoul seems not to have left a written account of the exposition, I will focus on Aragons role here. Film critic and Surrealist Georges Sadoul (who joined the Communist Party in 1932) collaborated with Aragon on the Exposition Anticoloniale. Georges Sadoul (190467) accompanied Aragon to the USSR in 1930. When Aragon quit the Surrealists for the Communist Party in 1932, Sadoul sided with him against Andr Breton (Julliard and Winock, 1996). 10. Norindr reproaches the Surrealists uncritical use of exoticism, but it must be noted that none of the articles in LHumanit seem ill at ease with this kind of animation either. Blake and Spector see the use of exoticism in the Exposition Anticoloniale as a reversal of the aesthetic being promoted at the Bois de Vincennes, and consequently ultimately reinforcing the same dualistic thinking that justified Western colonialism (Blake, 2002: 55; Spector, 1997: 179). 11. Thirion identifies Alfred Kurella as having written an article critical of the Communist Party, which appeared in LInternationale Communiste in 1926. This article led to an effort to oust him from the Party; however, in the end, the incident seems to have strengthened Kurellas position within it. He became one of the Kominterniens, those commis voyageurs en rvolution race dhommes assez extraordinaires, efficaces, intelligents, modestes, appels parfois jouer des rles politiques essentiels, mais en restant dans lombre et sans espoir den tirer dautres avantages que lorgueil davoir redress une erreur, rtabli une situation compromise, prpar des actions considrables. (Thirion, 1972: 308) Kurella had also been one of the German delegates at the International Congress of Revolutionary Writers (organised by RAPP) at Kharkov the preceding November. As Norindr notes (1996), Kurella was probably referring to the surrealist tract headed Ne visitez pas lExposition Coloniale (1980), distributed two days before the grand opening. By the time of his resignation, Thirion had achieved a relatively high stature within the French Communist Party through his accomplishments in Paris. According to his own account, he had revived the Plaisance cell and all auxiliary organisations (including the International Red Aid, Friends of the USSR, the Committee of the Defence of Humanity) in the fourteenth arrondissement; he had established a Marxist study group for employees and youths; he had enhanced the Party coffers by organising a dance, and had revived some trade union newspapers (Thirion, 1972: 258). Other collaborators of varying degrees included Tristan Tzara, Paul luard and Yves Tanguy (Blake, 2002: 48). Javais beaucoup travaill cette exposition, jen avais organis la garde, et pour massurer que tout mon monde tait prsent, je passais de longues heures avenue Maturin-Moreau. Jarrivais souvent le premier et je partais le dernier (Thirion, 1972: 320). As Aragon tells it, at the Conference in Kharkov, the Party had chastised him and Sadoul for insisting that the Surrealists were the only true revolutionary writers and

12.

13.

14. 15.

16.

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17.

18. 19.

20.

21.

les seuls tratres la classe bourgeoise dont les Remy, Israti, Barbusse sont, au bout du compte, les serviteurs sous des dguisements divers (Aragon, 1975: 274). Also in Aragon (1931: 5). At the time of the exposition, Sadoul had just begun writing for LHumanit, thanks in part to Thirions support: Je souhaitais que Aragon et Breton obtinssent aussi vite que possible un emploi rvolutionnaire, insistant sur le fait que les discussions sur les pointes dpingle avaient assez dur (Thirion, 1972: 307). For more on the distrust by the Communist Party of the Surrealists, see Caute (1964) and Rose (1991). And in fact, at Kharkov, Sadoul had been criticised for having adopted un ton de plaisanterie in a letter of insults that he had sent to the valedictorian of the military school of Saint-Cyr (Thirion, 1972: 300). The CGTU was one of the labour organisations named in the confidential memo of 29 September 1931 among groups whose support the Communist Party sought for the Ligue Anti-imprialiste. To quote Norindr: [The anti-colonial exposition] strove to shed light on unsettling aspects of colonial truth and reality put forward and affirmed by the Exposition Coloniale by fracturing the bourgeois vision of colonial order with its own surreal assemblage of disparate installations, which included, under the same roof, the ethnographic [my emphasis] exhibit organised by Aragon and a wide array of anti-colonial propaganda materials, ranging from pictures and drawings to maps, political cartoons, and captions. (Norindr, 1996: 53)

22. The first was entitled, Ne visitez pas lExposition Coloniale; the second was published on 3 July 1931, following the destruction by fire of the Dutch Indies pavilion. Aragon also names the Surrealists support of mass public demonstrations in Spanish towns that had resulted in the torching of churches (Aragon, 1975: 180). 23. Reprinted from Aragon (1931: 4). 24. That Surrealists valued such flea-market Christian statuettes as objets trouvs, when they were obviously rejected by the art establishment, adds another layer of tension to Aragons exhibition. 25. The Galerie Pigalle was owned by the Baron de Rothschild. Numerous reviewers of the exhibition commented on the recent consideration of such primitive sculpted objects and masks as art some with appreciation, others with derision. See, for example, Clouzot (1930), Kunstler (1930), Cogniat (1930), Reynal (1930), Saint-Cyr (1930). 26. Such debates focused not on the problem of whether useful objects could be considered art, but rather on the aesthetics of such objects. 27. Inaugurations by government ministers seem to have been the ultimate mark of bourgeois approval, and therefore the ultimate insult for those outside the mainstream. When reporting on the opening of the counter-exposition, LHumanit remarked proudly that it had taken place without the presence of any ministers. Note sur lExposition Anticoloniale (1931) gave an additional reason for the low-key opening: partir du 29 aot lExposition sera non pas ouverte solennellement et publiquement, mais le comit dorganisation invitera personnellement une srie de personnalits plus ou moins sympathisantes, une srie dorganisations

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ouvrires, visiter lExposition Ce nest pas quune semaine aprs que lExposition sera ouverte publiquement. Linterdiction sera dj devenue moins facile, des masses dj assez grandes seraient intresses et il sera plus facile de les appeler lutter effectivement pour imposer la tenue ouverte de lExposition et pour organiser sa protection contre les coups de force probables. 28. I have discussed elsewhere this conflicted reaction to a diminished sense of exoticism in the wake of the civilising missions progress with respect to the Algerian pavilion at the Exposition Coloniale (Palermo, 1998). 29. Despite Reynals fears, however, the statues still had sufficient power to provoke, as evidenced by the fact that seven of them were temporarily withdrawn from the exhibit. It seems that some young ladies viewing the sculptures had been shocked by their ralisme trop vident, as Le Journal delicately phrased it. Protesting their withdrawal from the exhibition, Tzara countered that, if anything, these statues were no less suggestive than Greek statuary which nobody would consider banning from public museums and parks. The following is one account of the scandal that erupted around the exhibit at the Galerie Pigalle in Paris, as reported in Le Journal on 1 April 1930: On saccorde trouver aujourdhui que lart ngre a exerc, depuis un quart de sicle, une influence relle sur la peinture et la sculpture modernes. La plastique sauvage, prne jadis, ltonnement, voir lindignation des bourgeois, par les peintres Derain, Matisse, Picasso et Vlaminck, est devenue quasi classique. Or, voici quun conflit assez curieux vient de natre propos dune exposition dart africain et dart ocanien qui se tient actuellement au Pigalle. Sept statuettes ont t juges dun ralisme trop vident par le Baron Henri de Rothschild, qui les a fait expulser et les tient la disposition de leurs propritaires, de riches amateurs qui les avaient prtes. Le principal organisateur de lexposition, le pote Tristan Tzara, proteste contre ces victions au nomm de plusieurs victimes. Je mtonne, ma-t-il dit, que la pudeur de M. de Rothschild se soit alarme au bout de trois semaines et qui, sous prtexte que lexposition est visite par des jeunes filles, il ait pris une mesure de rigueur lencontre des statuettes. Il ny a pas dimpudeur en art, mais sil pouvait y en avoir, la statuaire ngre, qui est trs stylise, pourrait tre considre comme bien plus exacte que la statuaire grecque. Or personne ne songe procder des expulsions dans les muses et dans les jardins publics. M. Tristan Tzara mannonce ensuite que, par lorgane de M. Raymond Hubert, il va demander auprs du tribunal de la Seine, sigeant en audience de rfr, de commettre un expert leffet de donner son avis sur le caractre purement artistique des objets exposs et ventuellement, dordonner leur rintgration solennelle lexposition! (Une controverse, 1930) 30. Inside the Pavillon des Missions catholiques, the exhibit included tout au long de la nef les autels paens et les emblmes ftichistes, qui ont peu peu cd la place lautel dispos l-bas dans le fond de lglise, sous le rayonnant vitrail (Tharaud and Tharaud, 1931). 31. The two photographs of the cultural/religious exhibit mounted by Aragon and Sadoul, which appeared in Le Surralisme au Service de la rvolution, 4 (December 1931: 40), have been reproduced in Spector (1997: 178) and Blake (2002: 50).

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References
Ageron, Charles-Robert (1984) LExposition Coloniale de 1931: Mythe Rpublicain ou Mythe Imprial?, in Pierre Nora (ed.) Les Lieux de mmoire, vol. 1, pp. 56191. Paris: Gallimard. Aragon, Louis (1931) Le Surralisme et le devenir rvolutionnaire, Le Surralisme au Service de la Rvolution, 3 (December): 28. Aragon, Louis (1975) uvre potique, vol. 5. Paris: Club Livre Diderot. Blake, Jody (2002) Truth about the Colonies, 1931: Art indigne in Service of the Revolution, Oxford Art Journal, 25(1): 3558. Breton, Andr (1962) Manifestes du surralisme. Paris: Jean-Jacques Pauvert. Caute, David (1964) Communism and the French Intellectuals, 19141960. London: Andr Deutsch. Clouzot, Henri (1930) [untitled article], Miroir du Monde, 5 April: n.p. Cogniat, Raymond (1930) LArt ngre, Modes de la femme de France, 15 June: n.p. Une controverse artistique et judiciaire propos dune exposition dart ngre, Le Journal, 1 April: n.p. LExposition anti-imprialiste: La Vrit sur les colonies (description sommaire) (1931) four-page report. Paris: Bibliothque Marxiste. LExposition anti-imprialiste se prpare: elle montrera la vrit sur les colonies (1931) LHumanit, 4 July: 4. LExposition Coloniale de Vincennes (1931) Bulletin Colonial, 1: 2. Geoghegan, C. G. (1978) Surrealism and Communism: The Hesitations of Aragon from Kharkov to the Affaire front rouge, Journal of European Studies, 8(1): 1233. Gide, Andr (1995) Voyage au Congo suivi du Retour du Tchad, Carnets de Route. Paris: Gallimard (first edns 1927 and 1928, respectively). Hodeir, Catherine and Pierre, Michel (1991) LExposition Coloniale. Brussels: ditions Complexe. Julliard, Jacques and Winock, Michel (1996) Dictionnaire des intellectuels franais, pp. 10191020. Paris: Seuil. Kunstler, Charles (1930) Exposition dart ngre, Le Cahier (March): 3945. Lebovics, Herman (1992) True France: The Wars over Cultural Identity, 19001945. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. Morton, Patricia Ann (2000) Hybrid Modernities: Architecture and Representation at the 1931 Colonial Exposition, Paris. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Ne visitez pas lExposition Coloniale (1980), in Jos Pierre (ed.), Tracts Surralistes et dclarations collectives 19221939, vol. 1, pp. 1945. Paris: Le Terrain Vague. Norindr, Panivong (1996) Phantasmatic Indochina: French Colonial Ideology in Film, Architecture, and Literature. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Note sur lExposition Anticoloniale (1931) unsigned memo marked Confidentiel. Microfilm 69, series 461. Paris: Bibliothque Marxiste. Palermo, Lynne E. (1998) Mixed Messages: LIllustration on the Exposition Coloniale of 1931, Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Western Society for French History, 25: 196206. Pennell, C. R. (2000) Morocco since 1830. New York: New York University Press. Reynal, Maurice (1930) Les Ngres font leur entre dans le monde, LIntransigeant, 4 March: n.p. Rose, Alan (1991) Surrealism and Communism, The Early Years. New York: Peter Lang.

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Saint-Cyr, Charles de (1930) Art: Une trs belle exposition Afrique et Ocanie, Semaine Paris, 14 March: n.p. Second International Conference of Revolutionary Writers: Reports, Resolutions, Debates (1931). Moscow. Spector, Jack J. (1997) Surrealist Art and Writing, 19191939. New York: Cambridge University Press. Stewart, Susan (1993) On Longing: Narratives of the Miniature, the Gigantic, the Souvenir, the Collection. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Stora, Benjamin (2001) Algeria: A Short History, trans. Jane Marie Todd. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. Suret-Canale, Jean (1971) French Colonial Africa, 19001945, trans. Till Gottheiner. New York: Pica. Tharaud, Jerome and Tharaud Jean (1931) Les Pavillons des missions, LIllustration, special number on LExposition Coloniale. Thirion, Andr (1972) Rvolutionnaires sans rvolution. Paris: Laffont.

Lynn E. Palermo is Associate Professor of French at Susquehanna University. Address for correspondence: Department of Modern Languages, Susquehanna University, 514 University Avenue, Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania 17870, USA [email: palermo@susqu.edu]

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