Biscuit Medal to Jack Bond
2022
Biscuit Medal to Stuart Cornfeld
2019
Biscuit Medal for Jan Svankmajer
2018
Biscuit Medal for John Ashbery
2017
John Ashbery with the Raymond Roussel Society Medal.
Hudson, New York. June 2017.
Photo © Joan Bofill
The Raymond Roussel Society Medal or Biscuit Medal
Unique piece of 930 silver plated in gold. Its interior is holds a cookie in the shape of a 5-pointed star.
The medal of honor was the fruit of a special collaboration between the artist and filmmaker Joan Bofill, the jeweler and sculptor Enric Majoral and the noted pastry chef Jordi Roca (Celler de Can Roca).
The medal’s unique design recalls the star-shaped biscuit that Roussel saved from a luncheon with the popular and admired astronomer, Camille Flammarion (1842-1925) in 1923. Roussel had an urn made out of crystal in which to keep it. After Roussel’s death in 1933, Georges Bataille happened upon the urn in a flea market and purchased it. Bataille then presented it to Dora Maar, who included it in the exhibition, Objets Surréalistes, at the Charles Ratton Galerie in Paris, in 1936.
Recipients:
2022 Jack Bond (1937)
2019 Stuart Cornfeld (1952-2020)
2018 Jan Svankmajer (1934)
2017 John Ashbery (1927-2017)
Conferences
2022 “DALÍ IN NEW YORK”, La Filmoteca Española, Madrid, SPAIN
Participants: Jack Bond and Joan Bofill-Amargós.
Filmoteca Catalog
2018 “Tribute to Jan Švankmajer”, La Filmoteca de Catalunya, Barcelona, SPAIN
Participants: Jan Svankmajer, Jaromír Kallista, Joan Bofill, Joan Marimon and Hermes Salceda.
2017 “Talking about Art: John Ashbery and Raymond Roussel Legacy in contemporary Art”, New York, USA
Participants: Joan Bofill, Mary Ann Caws, Peter Consenstein, Sozita Goudouna and Thor Halvorssen. www.nyork.cervantes.es
Press & Articles
The Flowchart Foundation John Ashbery’s Honours and Awards
2018
La Vanguardia “Animación de culto”
Time Out “Jan Svankmajer”
Centro Checo “Jan Švankmajer recibe la medalla de The Raymond Roussel Society en Barcelona”
2017
Libertad Digital “Se presenta en Nueva York la Raymond Roussel Society”
Vice Versa Magazine “Raymond Roussel y su legado”
Perfil “Pedirle a un poeta”
Ndbooks “Raymond Roussel and his legacy”
Stuart Cornfeld holding the Raymond Roussel Society cookie.
Los Angeles, 2019
La Filmoteca de Catalunya, Barcelona, September, 2018
From left to right: Joan Bofill, Jan Svankmajer, Karolina Jurakova, Jaromir Kallista and Hermes Salceda.
John Ashbery Acceptance Remarks for Roussel Medal:
Its such an honor to be the recipient of the first Raymond Roussel Society medal.
When I began to do research on Roussel in the 1950s, he was barely taken seriously, even in France. Paule Thévenin, the “muse” of Antonin Artaud, once referred to me as ce fou d’Américain qui s’intéresse à Raymond Roussel. And this would have been the prevailing view at the time. The lack of interest was, at times, helpful, and enabled me to make discoveries, such as the unpublished story “A la Havane,” the introductory chapter to his final unfinished work, Documents pour servir de canevas. The distance between now and then can be succinctly indicated by the superb new film, “Le jour de gloire”, which belatedly restores Roussel to the sense of “glory” he experienced as a young writer.
I regret very much that my health doesn’t permit me to accept the medal in person, but I’m glad that my dear friend and fellow Rousselâtre, Trevor Winkfield, could accept it on my behalf. Thank you all very much for being here this evening.
John Ashbery
June 12, 2017