BANANA SPLIT 1980 / 1990

Under the sign of the “desire for an inedible dessert,” the Revue Banana Split marked the poetic field of the 1980s. Founded at 27 Boulevard du Roy René in Aix-en-Provence (and closing a decade later at 27 Avenue du Prado in Marseille) by Liliane Giraudon and Jean-Jacques Viton, it combined the “resolutely contemporary” with the “rediscovery of ancient texts offered for modern reading.” Banana Split declared its self-dissolution with its 27th issue, reviving an editorial tradition of numbers in homage to Picabia.

CONTRIBUTIONS

Printed on offset paper, simply bound, with a print run of 500 copies and sold at an affordable price, the magazine welcomed poets from diverse horizons such as Dominique Fourcade, Joseph Guglielmi, Mathieu Bénezet, Christian Guez-Ricord, Olivier Cadiot, Hubert Lucot, Nanni Balestrini, John Ashbery, and Haroldo de Campos, as well as visual artists such as Christian Boltanski, Jean-Pierre Pincemin, Matsutani, and Annette Messager.

N°01 TO 27

Numerous issues take the form of “albums” featuring a particular author or theme: Mallarmé, Pound, Wittgenstein, 16th-century Occitan eroticism, Catalan Futurists or women’s writing. Breaking with the conventions of poetry publishing, Banana Split has been a daring ten-year enterprise in the service of poetry.

ABS : AN ACCESSIBLE ARCHIVE

Archive Banana Split is published by Editions Salon du Salon. ABS lists visual artists’ contributions to the Revue Banana Split, founded and directed by Liliane Giraudon and Jean Jacques Viton between 1980 and 1990.

USE OF THE WEBSITE

Users will find in the site MENU access to the entire archive of original documents supplied by the artists, as well as a PDF/PRINT function for generating a document to keep or print.

WITH THE SUPPORT OF

DRAC PACA, Direction Régionale des Affaires Culturelles (PNV Programme for the digitization and valorization of cultural contents), CNAP, Centre national des arts plastique (Support for digital publishing), ADAGP (Funds for artworks and archives)