par Jean Jamin
1994, in La Revue des revues no 18
Documents and the rest… Of anthropology in lowest depths of life
French ethnology and Surrealism have developed at the same time but their relationship is rather one of contiguity rather than influence. The two processes are the two areas of the same critical space. Innovative by nature, because of its subject (mostly so-called primitive civilisations) and its methods (the humble object is interesting), ethnography emerges quite close to some avantgarde notions. As such, Documents is a perfect example.
Founded by Georges Bataille, Carl Einstein and Georges Henri Rivière, the journal takes in Rivet, Mauss, Griaule or Leiris as well as Desnos, Picasso, Limbour or Queneau, professional as well as amateur ethnologists. The latter twisting or parodying the ethnographical subjects and methods brought a guarantee of modernism and indiscipline. The article evokes the journal and also some characters such as Paul Rivet (Founder of the Musée de l’Homme) and allows us to explore what Jamin calls « the ethnological area ».