Jean-Claude Silbermann FR, b. 1935

Born into a bourgeois family in 1935, having escaped persecution during the Occupation, he joined the Surrealist group before the age of 18 and participated in its events until its dissolution after André Breton’s death in 1966. As a result, he is commonly classified as a Surrealist.
But, as he writes on a corridor wall, among other maxims and observations: «The disappearance of the Surrealist group has not changed what I am. For me, as for all those who found themselves embroiled in it, to be a surrealist is to be.»
And to be, for him, is to create, which means not knowing what’s going to happen. That’s how he was when he started looking, around 1961. That’s how he is today.

Philippe Dagen, Le Monde, April 2023