Theatre of the Mechanized Grotesque. Roussel's Impressions of Africa

Extract

Raymond Roussel's three Parisian productions of Impressions of Africa in the years 1911 and 1912 electrified many of the future Dadas and Surrealists, such as Guillaume Apollinaire and Francis Picabia, into what Duchamp called a “decisive shock.” Not only were Roussel's publicity and staging unusually lavish for an avant-garde production of its time, but the performance itself promoted an entirely new attitude toward the concept of primitive consciousness and machinery. As Duchamp wrote in 1950, “It is true that I am indebted to Raymond Roussel for having enabled me, from 1912, to think of something else instead of retinal painting.”