Alain Borer
Encyclopedia
Alain Borer is a French poet, art critic, essayist, novelist, playwright, writer-traveler, signatory of the Littérature-monde (world literature) manifesto, and eminent authority on the works of Arthur Rimbaud. He has been Professor of Art at L'École supérieure des beaux-arts de Tours since 1979 and Visiting Professor of French Literature at the University of Southern California
since 2005. He recently received the Kessel Prize for his novel Koba (Seuil, 2002), as well as the 70th Prix Apollinaire for his play Icare & I don’t (Seuil). In 2010, Alain Borer was awarded the 10th Pierre Mac Orlan Prize for Le Ciel & la carte, carnet de voyage dans les mers du Sud à bord de La Boudeuse (Seuil), and the Maurice Genevoix Prize from the Académie Française
in 2011. Alain Borer was made a Knight (1985), then Officer (1993) of Arts and Letters in the French Legion of Honour, and is President of the Printemps des Poètes association. Alain Borer additionally received the Édouard Glissant
Prize in 2005, awarded by the University of Paris VIII for all of his achievements.
), before moving to Geneva to study at the Institut Florimont (1965–69), Nancy (Lycée Poincaré, 1970), Paris (Lycée Henri IV, 1971), the University of Paris (Université Paris Diderot) and Paris X-Nanterre. He lived for some time in Croatia (1974–80), and Rome (1986–89). He currently resides in the French town of Chaumussay
, in Touraine
.
, to whom he has devoted thirty years of his life. Aged 17, Alain Borer directed Le Bateau ivre, a student journal at the Institut Florimont in Geneva; aged 27 he travelled to Harar
in Ethiopia (the same age as Rimbaud was when he arrived here) as part of a film-making expedition with Léo Ferré (the film “Le Voleur de feu” was aired on French television in 1978). Alain Borer is the author of two books which have become classic references in Rimbaud studies; an album-book Un sieur Rimbaud, se disant négociant, with Philippe Soupault
(Lachenal & Ritter, 1984), and his combined essay and travel journal Rimbaud en Abyssinie (Fiction & Cie, 1984, et Points-Seuil, 2004). Aged 37 (the age of Rimbaud’s death), Alain Borer completed his book publications on the man with the “soles of wind”; Adieu à Rimbaud and L’Œuvre-vie, 1991, is an original monument of a publication marking the centenary of Rimbaud’s death and which sheds considerable new light upon Rimbaud’s universe, and which breathed considerable life into scholarship on the poet.
On reading the entirety of Rimbaud’s work (the “rimbaldothèque”) Alain Borer is not only the first to have traced the physical footsteps of Rimbaud’s world journeys (in what he has termed the “Rimbaldie”), but also to have developed and forged the necessary concepts (the paradigm of the Oeuvre-Vie, “the major signifier”) permitting him to theorize and unlock the secrets of “this wild parade” (Rimbaud, l'heure de la fuite, Gallimard, 1991, with an introduction by Hugo Pratt
).
Alain Borer is also a novelist (Koba, Seuil, collection “Fiction & Cie”), art critic (Dürer, 1980, Chambord, Monum, Hugo Pratt, Casterman), particularly on Joseph Beuys
(Joseph Beuys, published by the Centre Pompidou, 1994, and La Bibliothèque des Arts, Lausanne, 2001), essayist (Saint-Martin ou la coupabilité, musée de Tours), playwright (Paul des oiseaux, Le Chant du Rien visible, Fourbis, Le Quadrige invectif, Le cercle d’art, 2005, assembled together in Icare & I don't, Seuil, 2007), and world traveler and travel-writer (Sarajevo
, Gallimard, Liberia
, Michalon, Los Angeles
, Phébus, Pacific Palisades; with a work on the Pacific Palisades due to be published by Seuil).
As a poet (Pour l'amour du ciel, CD Radio France, the Poétiques Collection), Alain Borer is joined by André Velter
and Zéno Bianu in the Groupe Actéon. The group has three major preoccupations: an astrophysical obsession with “extreme travel” (Le Nuage de Magellan, Zone bleue), a “pataphysical” dimension (Bestiaire, Alexandrins fortuits), as well as poetic texts stripped to their bare essentials, which they have termed “noems” (Jeil, 2004, Loups plats, 2006).
After François Coupé (1973), Alain Borer has made “book-objects,” collages (Calme, 1987), and numerous books in collaboration with artists (for example, on Touareg jewellery with Kaïdin), which he signs off under the pen name “Jaseur boreal.” An exposition of his photographs, La Sanglinière, was presented in the château de Tours
in April 2007.
It is poetry, however, which infiltrates all of Alain Borer’s writings. His latest work, Icare & I don't (Seuil, 2007), “a metaphysical vaudeville,” illustrates this rare alliance of poetry and wit, of lightness and depth, whose tone should give life to works of “allegro serioso” – a program about which Roland Barthes
wrote: “With you, the art of living and the art of writing merge.”
His work includes a number of prefaces to books and art catalogues, book collaborations and collaborative reviews; a recent catalogue [G. Tran Din Mahe, 2008] lists approximately one thousand publications by one hundred publishers, in addition to forty television programs (Apostrophes in 1984 et Bouillon de culture in 1991), about a hundred radio shows (principally on France Culture
), two hundred and fifty conferences and public lectures in one hundred different towns and thirty universities in about thirty countries. His work is the subject of more than six hundred press articles.
Novels
Theater
Essays on Rimbaud
Essays on Art
Poetry
Audiovisual
Expositions
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
since 2005. He recently received the Kessel Prize for his novel Koba (Seuil, 2002), as well as the 70th Prix Apollinaire for his play Icare & I don’t (Seuil). In 2010, Alain Borer was awarded the 10th Pierre Mac Orlan Prize for Le Ciel & la carte, carnet de voyage dans les mers du Sud à bord de La Boudeuse (Seuil), and the Maurice Genevoix Prize from the Académie Française
Académie française
L'Académie française , also called the French Academy, is the pre-eminent French learned body on matters pertaining to the French language. The Académie was officially established in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu, the chief minister to King Louis XIII. Suppressed in 1793 during the French Revolution,...
in 2011. Alain Borer was made a Knight (1985), then Officer (1993) of Arts and Letters in the French Legion of Honour, and is President of the Printemps des Poètes association. Alain Borer additionally received the Édouard Glissant
Édouard Glissant
Édouard Glissant was a Martinican writer, poet and literary critic. He is widely recognised as one of the most influential figures in Caribbean thought and cultural commentary.-Life:...
Prize in 2005, awarded by the University of Paris VIII for all of his achievements.
Biography
Alain Borer grew up in Luxeuil-les-Bains (Franche-ComtéFranche-Comté
Franche-Comté the former "Free County" of Burgundy, as distinct from the neighbouring Duchy, is an administrative region and a traditional province of eastern France...
), before moving to Geneva to study at the Institut Florimont (1965–69), Nancy (Lycée Poincaré, 1970), Paris (Lycée Henri IV, 1971), the University of Paris (Université Paris Diderot) and Paris X-Nanterre. He lived for some time in Croatia (1974–80), and Rome (1986–89). He currently resides in the French town of Chaumussay
Chaumussay
Chaumussay is a commune in the Indre-et-Loire department in central France.-Demography:...
, in Touraine
Touraine
The Touraine is one of the traditional provinces of France. Its capital was Tours. During the political reorganization of French territory in 1790, the Touraine was divided between the departments of Indre-et-Loire, :Loir-et-Cher and Indre.-Geography:...
.
Works
The name of Alain Borer is associated with that of Arthur RimbaudArthur Rimbaud
Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud was a French poet. Born in Charleville, Ardennes, he produced his best known works while still in his late teens—Victor Hugo described him at the time as "an infant Shakespeare"—and he gave up creative writing altogether before the age of 21. As part of the decadent...
, to whom he has devoted thirty years of his life. Aged 17, Alain Borer directed Le Bateau ivre, a student journal at the Institut Florimont in Geneva; aged 27 he travelled to Harar
Harar
Harar is an eastern city in Ethiopia, and the capital of the modern Harari ethno-political division of Ethiopia...
in Ethiopia (the same age as Rimbaud was when he arrived here) as part of a film-making expedition with Léo Ferré (the film “Le Voleur de feu” was aired on French television in 1978). Alain Borer is the author of two books which have become classic references in Rimbaud studies; an album-book Un sieur Rimbaud, se disant négociant, with Philippe Soupault
Philippe Soupault
Philippe Soupault was a French writer and poet, novelist, critic, and political activist. He was active in Dadaism and later founded the Surrealist movement with André Breton...
(Lachenal & Ritter, 1984), and his combined essay and travel journal Rimbaud en Abyssinie (Fiction & Cie, 1984, et Points-Seuil, 2004). Aged 37 (the age of Rimbaud’s death), Alain Borer completed his book publications on the man with the “soles of wind”; Adieu à Rimbaud and L’Œuvre-vie, 1991, is an original monument of a publication marking the centenary of Rimbaud’s death and which sheds considerable new light upon Rimbaud’s universe, and which breathed considerable life into scholarship on the poet.
On reading the entirety of Rimbaud’s work (the “rimbaldothèque”) Alain Borer is not only the first to have traced the physical footsteps of Rimbaud’s world journeys (in what he has termed the “Rimbaldie”), but also to have developed and forged the necessary concepts (the paradigm of the Oeuvre-Vie, “the major signifier”) permitting him to theorize and unlock the secrets of “this wild parade” (Rimbaud, l'heure de la fuite, Gallimard, 1991, with an introduction by Hugo Pratt
Hugo Pratt
Hugo Eugenio Pratt was an Italian comic book creator who was known for combining strong storytelling with extensive historical research on works such as Corto Maltese...
).
Alain Borer is also a novelist (Koba, Seuil, collection “Fiction & Cie”), art critic (Dürer, 1980, Chambord, Monum, Hugo Pratt, Casterman), particularly on Joseph Beuys
Joseph Beuys
Joseph Beuys was a German performance artist, sculptor, installation artist, graphic artist, art theorist and pedagogue of art.His extensive work is grounded in concepts of humanism, social philosophy and anthroposophy; it culminates in his "extended definition of art" and the idea of social...
(Joseph Beuys, published by the Centre Pompidou, 1994, and La Bibliothèque des Arts, Lausanne, 2001), essayist (Saint-Martin ou la coupabilité, musée de Tours), playwright (Paul des oiseaux, Le Chant du Rien visible, Fourbis, Le Quadrige invectif, Le cercle d’art, 2005, assembled together in Icare & I don't, Seuil, 2007), and world traveler and travel-writer (Sarajevo
Sarajevo
Sarajevo |Bosnia]], surrounded by the Dinaric Alps and situated along the Miljacka River in the heart of Southeastern Europe and the Balkans....
, Gallimard, Liberia
Liberia
Liberia , officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Sierra Leone on the west, Guinea on the north and Côte d'Ivoire on the east. Liberia's coastline is composed of mostly mangrove forests while the more sparsely populated inland consists of forests that open...
, Michalon, Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, Phébus, Pacific Palisades; with a work on the Pacific Palisades due to be published by Seuil).
As a poet (Pour l'amour du ciel, CD Radio France, the Poétiques Collection), Alain Borer is joined by André Velter
André Velter
André Velter , French poet, was born in Signy-l'Abbaye in the Ardennes région and was educated in Charleville and Paris. Having begun his first journeys in 1955 through Europe and the Middle East, he has traveled through Afghanistan, Tibet, China and India...
and Zéno Bianu in the Groupe Actéon. The group has three major preoccupations: an astrophysical obsession with “extreme travel” (Le Nuage de Magellan, Zone bleue), a “pataphysical” dimension (Bestiaire, Alexandrins fortuits), as well as poetic texts stripped to their bare essentials, which they have termed “noems” (Jeil, 2004, Loups plats, 2006).
After François Coupé (1973), Alain Borer has made “book-objects,” collages (Calme, 1987), and numerous books in collaboration with artists (for example, on Touareg jewellery with Kaïdin), which he signs off under the pen name “Jaseur boreal.” An exposition of his photographs, La Sanglinière, was presented in the château de Tours
Tours
Tours is a city in central France, the capital of the Indre-et-Loire department.It is located on the lower reaches of the river Loire, between Orléans and the Atlantic coast. Touraine, the region around Tours, is known for its wines, the alleged perfection of its local spoken French, and for the...
in April 2007.
It is poetry, however, which infiltrates all of Alain Borer’s writings. His latest work, Icare & I don't (Seuil, 2007), “a metaphysical vaudeville,” illustrates this rare alliance of poetry and wit, of lightness and depth, whose tone should give life to works of “allegro serioso” – a program about which Roland Barthes
Roland Barthes
Roland Gérard Barthes was a French literary theorist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. Barthes' ideas explored a diverse range of fields and he influenced the development of schools of theory including structuralism, semiotics, existentialism, social theory, Marxism, anthropology and...
wrote: “With you, the art of living and the art of writing merge.”
His work includes a number of prefaces to books and art catalogues, book collaborations and collaborative reviews; a recent catalogue [G. Tran Din Mahe, 2008] lists approximately one thousand publications by one hundred publishers, in addition to forty television programs (Apostrophes in 1984 et Bouillon de culture in 1991), about a hundred radio shows (principally on France Culture
France Culture
France Culture is a French public radio channel and part of Radio France. Its programming encompasses a wide variety of features on historical, philosophical, sociopolitical, and scientific themes , as well as literary readings, radio plays, and experimental productions...
), two hundred and fifty conferences and public lectures in one hundred different towns and thirty universities in about thirty countries. His work is the subject of more than six hundred press articles.
Selected publications
In the USA- Rimbaud in Abissinia. New York, William Morrow, 1991 ISBN 978-0-688-07594-1
- The Essential Joseph Beuys, The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1997 ISBN 978-0-262-02431-0
Novels
- Koba, Éditions du Seuil. « Fiction & Cie », 2002 (winner of 2003 Kessel prize) ISBN 978-2-02-018325-3
Theater
- Icare & I don't. Éditions du Seuil, 2007 (winner of 2008 Apollinaire prize) ISBN 978-2-02-095024-4
- Richard Mille, Le Cercle d’Art, 2005 ISBN 978-2-7022-0762-8
Essays on Rimbaud
- Rimbaud en Abyssinie, Éditions du Seuil, « Fiction & Cie », 1984, re-published in 1991, Points-Seuil, 2004 ISBN 978-2-02-006991-5
- Un sieur Rimbaud, se disant négociant… With Philippe Soupault, Arthur Aeschbacher and François Margolin, Lachenal & Ritter, 1984 (winner of the Académie française Essay prize, 1985) ; Re-published by Le Livre de Poche, Hachette, 1989, under the title, La Terre et les pierres ISBN 978-2-07-076737-3
- Rimbaud d’Arabie, Éditions du Seuil, « Fiction & Cie », 1991
- Rimbaud, l’heure de la fuite, introduction by Hugo Pratt, Découvertes-Gallimard, 1991, re-published in 2001 ISBN 978-2-07-053125-7
- Rimbaud, by Enid Starkie, translation, preface and notes, Flammarion, 1982, re-published in 1989 ISBN 978-0-8112-0197-1
- Œuvre-vie, Édition du centenaire, Arléa, 1991
- Bouts rimés d’Arthur Rimbaud, drawings by Michel Gérard, the « Muro Torto » Collection, Rome, Villa Médicis, 1980
- Je me ressouviens, Fnac & Institut du Monde Arabe, 1991
- « Nothing de Rimbe », Intervention/image by Ernest Pignon-ErnestErnest Pignon-ErnestErnest Pignon-Ernest is a Fluxus and Situationist French artist.-Overview:His first work was done in 1966. It was a reaction to France's Nuclear Strike Force. In 1971, he exhibited posters depicting scenes from the Commune. In 1978-1979, his posters of Arthur Rimbaud could be seen all over France....
, AREA, 1986, nouvelle édition La Nuée bleue, 1991 - Le lieu et la formule, Mercure de France, 1999
Essays on Art
- Déploration de Joseph Beuys, Bibliothèque des Arts, Lausanne, 2001
- Joseph Beuys, Cosac Naify Edições, 2001, ISBN 9788575030417
- Chambord Les trois corps de Chambord, photographies de Dominic Hofbauer, Monum, éditions du patrimoine, 2006
- L'Œuvre-vie d’Hugo Pratt et son empire perdu : Éthiopie, La trace du scorpion, Casterman, 2005
Poetry
- François Coupé, SAFC-Encres Vives, 1973
- Bestiaire, « Les Poquettes volantes » Collction, La Louvière (Belgium), Daily-Bul, 1979
- Le Nuage de Magellan, I, gouaches by Georges Badin, Musée de Céret, 1980
- Le Nuage de Magellan, II, collage by Peter Briggs, Bruxelles, Bibliothèque Phantomas, 1983
- Zone bleue, La Chevelure de Bérénice ; Le Nuage de Magellan, extract III, drawings by Barbara von Thaden, Lachenal & Ritter, 1984
- Les Très Riches Heures de Chuck Berry, photomontages by Joël Hubaut, Éditions de la C.R.E.M., 1991
- Départs arrêtés, watercolors by Jean-Claude Vignes, Aréa, 1995
- Jeil, noèmes, Interventions de Pierre Zanzucchi, L’Échelle, Hôtel Beury, 2000
- Carte mère, noèmes, Vice-versa, 2002
- Loups plats, illustrated by Pierre Antoniucci, Georges Badin, Peter Briggs, Alain Gauvin, Christian Jaccard, Jacques Vimard, Pierre Zanzucchi, Rencontre, 2006
Audiovisual
- Paul Verlaine, told by Alain Borer. Cassettes Radio France, 1979
- Arthur Rimbaud, told by Alain Borer. Texts read by Laurent Terzieff, cassettes Radio France, 1978 and 1989
- Le Voleur de feu. Film directed by Charles Brabant. With Léo Ferré, TF1, 1978 and 1986
- Sur les terrasses de Rimbaud. Film directed by Saad Salman, Paris, Les Productions de La Lanterne, 1990
- Pour l'amour du ciel. Texts read by Alain Borer (book CD), Cassettes Radio France, 1996
Expositions
- Le Reste à voir, Hôtel Beury, L'Échelle, March 2006
- La Sanglinière (photographies), Château de Tours, 29 March – 27 April 2007