Pierre Albert-Birot (22 April 1876 â€" 25 July 1967) was a French
avant-garde poet, dramatist, and theater manager.Born in Angoulême,
Albert-Birot moved to Paris in 1894. There he attended art school and
befriended Gustave Moreau. He worked for five decades as a restorer
for antique dealer Madame Lelong. He began writing after he met the
musician Germaine de SurVille in 1913. Long before the First World
War, he participated, as a painter, sculptor, poet, theater presenter,
playwright and creator of groups and magazines, in the great adventure
of modern art. His friend Apollinaire dubbed him "the Pyrogene," so
fiery was he as an innovator and exciter. From January 1916 to
December 1919, Albert-Birote edited the avant-garde art magazine SIC,
an acronym for Sons Idées Couleurs (Sounds Ideas Colors), which
featured writings by Futurists, Surrealists, and Dadaists. SIC became
the turntable of all avant-garde initiatives, from cubism or futurism
and to surrealism, a movement that he will help to birth, but to which
he will not adhere, this "blaster" having the religion of independence
and objectivity.[1] If he wrote a number of poem books (Thirty-one
Pocket Poems; 1917; Daily Poems, 1919; La Triloferie, 1920; Poems to
the Other Me, 1927; Amenpeine, La Cle des Champs, La Panthere noire,
1938; Natural Amusements, 1945; 110 drops of poetry, 1952, etc.) this
work of an explosive lyricism, funny and eminently "modern" is
inseparable from the theatrical work that Alber-Birot composed, from
1917 to 1922, in a burlesque tone which announces Ionesco: Larountala,
Matoum and Trevibar, The man cut into pieces, the Bondieu, the folding
women, etc, and it is dominated by two great epics in prose:
Grabinoulor (1933) and the Memoirs of Adam (1943). His first volume of
poems was Trente et un Poèmes de Poche (1917). His novel Grabinoulor
appeared in 1919. Grabinoulor, which was partially brought to light in
1964, is certainly his masterpiece and one of the most important works
of "modern" poetry. Bernard Jourdan has finely established that the
name of the hero of this poem-river, from which all punctuation is
banned, is the almost successful anagram of "We Albert-Birot";
contemporary type, this Grabinoulor knows a host of adventures, some
daily, others wonderful, which resemble him to the heroes of Rabelais
and Lewis Caroll, but also, and above all, to the supermen of modern
mythology, from Fantomas to Tarzan, from Arsene Lupine to science
fiction superman, capable of traveling through the centuries as well
as through the stars. We also owe to Pierre Albert-Birot, a singular
man, poet on the fringes who exerted a great fascination for the new
generations, fanciful novels like Remy Floche, employee (1934),
learned translations of Homere, Eschyle and Virgile, transcriptions in
modern French medieval poets and interesting studies on prosodic
forms.Albert-Birot directed the first performance of Les mamelles de
Tirésias (Tiresias's Breasts, 1917) by Guillaume Apollinaire, a
friend who had also been a contributor to SIC. He went on to compose
numerous plays of his own, including Barbe-Bleue (Bluebeard); Les
Femmes pliantes (The Flexible Woman); and L'homme coupé en morceaux
(The Dismembered Man).[2]In 1929 he founded his own theater, Le
Plateau, in which he produced his own series of short performance
pieces entitled Pièces-Études.[2]
avant-garde poet, dramatist, and theater manager.Born in Angoulême,
Albert-Birot moved to Paris in 1894. There he attended art school and
befriended Gustave Moreau. He worked for five decades as a restorer
for antique dealer Madame Lelong. He began writing after he met the
musician Germaine de SurVille in 1913. Long before the First World
War, he participated, as a painter, sculptor, poet, theater presenter,
playwright and creator of groups and magazines, in the great adventure
of modern art. His friend Apollinaire dubbed him "the Pyrogene," so
fiery was he as an innovator and exciter. From January 1916 to
December 1919, Albert-Birote edited the avant-garde art magazine SIC,
an acronym for Sons Idées Couleurs (Sounds Ideas Colors), which
featured writings by Futurists, Surrealists, and Dadaists. SIC became
the turntable of all avant-garde initiatives, from cubism or futurism
and to surrealism, a movement that he will help to birth, but to which
he will not adhere, this "blaster" having the religion of independence
and objectivity.[1] If he wrote a number of poem books (Thirty-one
Pocket Poems; 1917; Daily Poems, 1919; La Triloferie, 1920; Poems to
the Other Me, 1927; Amenpeine, La Cle des Champs, La Panthere noire,
1938; Natural Amusements, 1945; 110 drops of poetry, 1952, etc.) this
work of an explosive lyricism, funny and eminently "modern" is
inseparable from the theatrical work that Alber-Birot composed, from
1917 to 1922, in a burlesque tone which announces Ionesco: Larountala,
Matoum and Trevibar, The man cut into pieces, the Bondieu, the folding
women, etc, and it is dominated by two great epics in prose:
Grabinoulor (1933) and the Memoirs of Adam (1943). His first volume of
poems was Trente et un Poèmes de Poche (1917). His novel Grabinoulor
appeared in 1919. Grabinoulor, which was partially brought to light in
1964, is certainly his masterpiece and one of the most important works
of "modern" poetry. Bernard Jourdan has finely established that the
name of the hero of this poem-river, from which all punctuation is
banned, is the almost successful anagram of "We Albert-Birot";
contemporary type, this Grabinoulor knows a host of adventures, some
daily, others wonderful, which resemble him to the heroes of Rabelais
and Lewis Caroll, but also, and above all, to the supermen of modern
mythology, from Fantomas to Tarzan, from Arsene Lupine to science
fiction superman, capable of traveling through the centuries as well
as through the stars. We also owe to Pierre Albert-Birot, a singular
man, poet on the fringes who exerted a great fascination for the new
generations, fanciful novels like Remy Floche, employee (1934),
learned translations of Homere, Eschyle and Virgile, transcriptions in
modern French medieval poets and interesting studies on prosodic
forms.Albert-Birot directed the first performance of Les mamelles de
Tirésias (Tiresias's Breasts, 1917) by Guillaume Apollinaire, a
friend who had also been a contributor to SIC. He went on to compose
numerous plays of his own, including Barbe-Bleue (Bluebeard); Les
Femmes pliantes (The Flexible Woman); and L'homme coupé en morceaux
(The Dismembered Man).[2]In 1929 he founded his own theater, Le
Plateau, in which he produced his own series of short performance
pieces entitled Pièces-Études.[2]
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