Exquisite Corpse, and Bodies in Suitcases

'Another World' , on the Surrealists, is one of Edinburgh 2010's festival offerings.

On top of the brilliant Penrose collection already housed at the Dean (opposite the SGOMA), the curators have amassed works from all over. Packed rooms, with sculptures on plinths or in glass-topped cases and walls lined with hundreds of paintings and prints against dark walls, rather like being in a Victorian library or Freud's study in Vienna. One could spend hours there, recognizing old favourites (one of Duchamp/Mutt's urinals is there natch) and discovering new.

One of my favourites is the 'Exquisite Corpse' based on a game invented by Breton and others. We played this game as children and called it 'Consequences'. Draw head, fold, pass to neighbour, who draws the body, folds, passes on, who draws the feet. Unfold the whole thing to reveal your peculiar result. You can do it with poems or stories too. Write a line etc. The Surrealist version below is probably a bit more professional than we ever achieved.

http://www.nationalgalleries.org/collection/online_az/4:322/result/0/31332?initial=L&artistId=19716&artistName=Jacqueline%20Lamba&submit=1

My other favourites, which were new to me, were two boxes, one was filled with engravings, letters etc with random bits of information that could be read in any order by Duchamp. One is called La Mariee mise a nu par son celibataires, meme 'Boite verte' ( 'The Bride Stripped Bare by her Bachelors, Even 'The Green Box') .The aim is to bypass the intellect (like most Surrealist work.)The other was Boite-en-Valise (Box in a Suitcase) where the contents are mini- reproductions of his own work, apart from one on a transparent piece of plastic which is an original.
http://www.nationalgalleries.org/collection/online_az/4:322/result/0/483?initial=D&artistId=3200&artistName=Marcel%20Duchamp&submit=1

You may have noticed the Mona Lisa in there. No, not Duchamp passing it off as his own work - the repro is moustachioed by him.

Duchamp is the Grand-Daddy of it all. 'Is it Art etc?' No one's bettered him really. A pity so many contemporary artists seem to be unaware it's been done before, but I guess 'epater le bourgeoisie' still has its place.

The Boite-en-Valise reminded me of 'dramas in a suitcase' which I first saw in Powderhorn Park in Minneapolis , Minasota (USA) where, in-between the main show, members of 'In the Heart of the Beast' Mask and Puppet theatre company gave performances to one or two people, sitting on the grass. Inside the suitcase were miniature sets and characters or even just objects which they manipulated like puppets. Show over, they would wander off and perform to a new small group.