“Prophetic, Artaud already affirmed in his essay ‘The Theater of Cruelty’ (1938) the importance of recovering ‘the notion of a kind of unique language halfway between gesture and thought.’” Above: adapted illustration from ‘Artaud-le-Mômo,’ 1947, via Wikimedia Commons.
MÔMO is based on Antonin Artaud’s radical poetry book Artaud le Mômo[1] (section I below), which includes five short poems: “Le retour d’Artaud, le Mômo,” “Centre-Mère et Patron-Minet,” “Insulte à l’Inconditionné,” “L’Exécration du père-mère,” and “Aliénation et magie noire” (and the manuscripts contain many variations that were published afterwards in Dossier d’Artaud le Mômo [II–XVIII below]). Antonin Artaud — a famous French poet and playwright — wrote this book between July and September of 1946.
I’M A REAL ARTIST I’M A REAL MAMMAL I’M A REAL SON I’M A REAL AMERICAN I’M A REAL HOMOSEXUAL I’M A REAL BROTHER I’M A REAL HOMINID I’M A REAL CREATOR I’M A REAL THIRTY-YEAR-OLD I’M A REAL FRENCH I’M A REAL UNCLE I’M A REAL COOK I’M A REAL MASTURBATOR I’M A REAL DESCENDANT I’M A REAL PRACTITIONER I’M A REAL READER
