L’Acte manqué (1938) : Le surréalisme entre folie et performance – Un corps placé sous le signe de l’hystérie
L’Acte manqué (1938): Surrealism Between Insanity and Performance Art – Staging the Human Body under the Strain of Hysteria

Summary/Abstract: Even though the Surrealists in general and their attitude towards insanity and psychology in particular have been extensively studied, their unique approach to hysteria through their first ever performance piece, L’Acte manqué /The Unconsummated Act, presented at the Exposition Internationale du Surréalisme in 1938, has never been analyzed in detail. The opening of the exhibition featured at midnight, a half naked dancer, Hélène Vanel, who, thrashing, twitching and shouting ran into the middle of the crowd to give a dramatic, and only too real, impression of a hysterical attack. Her seemingly chaotic movements have been dismissed by most scholars as a mere manifestation of sexual frustration. This article intends to show that, on the contrary, the Unconsummated Act has a complex, intriguing structure, which transforms the event into a fascinating example of avant-garde artistic approach to hysteria, considered by Surrealists to be an act of social rebellion.

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