From the CHORS-statutes
The CHORS statutes were not written anywhere, nor at any time were they approved by anyone. CHORS has never had a constituent assembly, it has never held any meetings, and it does not remember the date of its birth.
The basic law of CHORS: primacy of artistic form. Any artist – regardless of race, nationality, confessional or political convictions – who recognizes this basic law may belong to the CHORS. (Communists are automatically excluded because, apart from countless intellectual crimes, their ideology does not recognize the primacy of form).
Anyone who joins the group “The CHORS Family” can make this known to the CHORS headquarters, whose location is changeable at any time, but does not necessarily have to do so – either when joining or when leaving. (You can leave the “CHORS family” at any time without giving reasons). It is enough for the “CHORS family” for someone to realize that they belong to it. If he is not a master of complete form, this deception of CHORS remains exclusively on the personal conscience of such an artist.
CHORS disseminates its artistic ideas and the fruits of its creative activity by all means at its disposal.
CHORS addresses only the personalities. CHORS rejoices in all its followers, whether they number in the tens or thousands: quantity is irrelevant, and the principle of mass appeal is firmly and uncompromisingly rejected by CHORS.
CHORS is in favor of complete independence in the evaluation of artistic phenomena. “CHORS approves”, ‘CHORS recommends’, ‘CHORS protests’ – this concerns only those choristers who are involved in the CHORS issue in question, without other choristers being obliged to do anything. Several groups of CHORS supporters can emerge with independent thoughts, programs and tasks. For example: a group of Japanese choristers aiming at the Europeanization of domestic poetry, or a group of French choristers with the purpose of propagating the art of Marc Chagall in the textile industry.
Every new style emerges by chance, i.e. through the higher law of creative forces embodied in a strong artistic personality. The last new style in time was Surrealism, and CHORS has nothing new after that in the depths of his movement to propose to the world. But in every epoch there must be someone who keeps the fire in the hearth of art: the cultivation of pure form. This cultivation of form, which the everlasting Philistine – the Eternal Philistine – regards as a wild “novelty” or as a “ causeless repetition of already outlived caprices”, is in fact only the simple fidelity of pure artists to pure art – the Eternal Art Tradition. CHORS took on this modest role unconditionally, and all choristers are united in it – despite individual differences in conviction and evaluation. It guarantees the existence of the CHORS – the Eternal CHORS – without statutes, meetings, conventions and without a precise list of members.
In original German
Aus den CHORS-Statuten
Die CHORS-Statuten wurden nirgendwo geschrieben, auch nirgendwann und durch niemanden gebilligt. Niemals hatte CHORS eine konstituierende Versammlung, er hat keine Tagungen abgehalte, und an das Datum seiner Geburt erinnert er sich nicht.
Das CHORS-Grundgesetz: Primat der künstlerischen Form. Dem CHORS darf jeder Künstler angehören – unabhängig von Rasse, Nationalität, komfessionellen [sic!] oder politischen Überzeugungen -, welcher dieses Grundgesetz anerkennt. (Die Kommunisten schliessen sich automatisch aus, denn, ausser unzähligen anderen geistigen Verbrechen, ihre Ideologie erkennt den Primat der Form nicht an.)
Jeder, der in die Gruppe „Die Familie CHORS“ eintritt, kann dies der CHORS-Zentrale bekanntgeben, deren Sitz jederzeit veränderlich ist, aber er braucht es nicht unbedingt zu tun – so beim Eintritt wie auch beim Austritt. (Man kann aus der „Familie CHORS“ jederzeit austreten, ohne die Gründe anzugeben.) Es genügt für die „Familie CHORS“, wenn es jemandem selbst bewusst wird, dass er zu ihr gehört. Wenn er dabei kein Meister der vollkommenen Form ist, so bleibt dieser Betrug an CHORS ausschliesslich auf dem persönlichen Gewissen eines solchen Künstlers.
CHORS verbreitet seine künstlerischen Ideen und die Früchte seiner schöpferischen Tätigkeit durch alle ihm zur Verfügung stehenden Mittel.
CHORS wendet sich nur an die Persönlichkeiten. CHORS freut sich über alle seine Anhänger, mögen sie sich nach Zahnen oder Tausenden zählen: die Menge spielt keine Rolle, und der Grundsatz der Massenhaftigkeit wird durch CHORS entschlossen und kompromisslos verworfen.
CHORS ist für die vollkommene Unabhängigkeit in der Wertung von Kunsterscheinungen. „CHORS billigt“, „CHORS empfiehlt“, „CHORS protestiert“ – das geht nur diejenigen Chorsiten an, die an der betreffenden CHORS-Ausgabe beteiligt sind, ohne dass andere Chorsiten dadurch zu irgend etwas verpflichtet werden. Mehrere Gruppen von CHORS-Anhängern können entstehen mit selbständigen Gedanken, Programmen und Aufgaben. Zum Beispiel: eine Gruppe japanischer Chorsiten, die sich die Europäisierung (?) der heimischen Poesie zum Ziel nähme, oder eine Gruppe französischer Chorsiten mit dem Zweck, die Kunst Marc Chagalls in der Textilindustrie zu propagieren.
Jeder neue Stil entsteht zufällig, das heisst durch die höhere Gesetzmässigkeit schöpferischer Kräfte, die in einer starken künstlerischen Persönlichkeit verkörpert ist. Der letzte neue Stil in der Zeit war der Surrealismus, und CHORS hat inzwischen nichts Neues danach in der Tiefe seiner Bewegung, das er der Welt vorschlagen könnte. Doch in jeder zeitlichen Epoche muss jemand sein, der das Feuer bewahrt im Herd der Kunst: die Pflege der reinen Form. Diese Pflege der Form, dem jederzeitigen Philister – dem Ewigen Philister – als wilde „Novität“ oder als „grundlose Wiederholung schon überlebter Capriolen“ geltend, ist tatsächlich nur einfache Treue reiner Künstler zur reinen Kunst – die Ewige Kunsttradition. Diese bescheide Rolle nahm CHORS bedingungslos auf sich, und in ihr sind alle Chorsiten – trotz individueller Verschiedenartigkeiten in Überzeugung und Wertung – einig. In ihr wird die Existenz des CHORS verbürgt – der Ewige CHORS – ohne Statuten, Versammlungen, Tagungen und ohne genaue Mitgliederliste.
***
The Ukrainian DP-journal CHORS was first and foremost not a political publication. Published by a small team around the dissident Ihor Kostec’kyj, its focus was on arts, culture and film. In its own statutes, CHORS was not only displayed as a journal. Instead, it should be somewhat of a worldwide movement, where people could join or leave if they wish in the future. The overriding principle: to accept the “primacy of the artistic form”, that art should be created to be art and not for economic, political or popular reasons. If one does accept this very principle, this core principle, “every artist is allowed to belong to [CHORS] – regardless of race, nationality, confessional or political convictions”. Only one group does exclude themselves from this: The Communists because “their ideology does not acknowledge the primacy of form”.
For the future, Kostec’kyj dreamt of several groups of CHORS forming in different parts of the world who work on different topics, have different programs and different thoughts but are all connected with this one principle on the primacy of form. With this attitude, CHORS opposed the Soviet way of thinking about art severely. In the Soviet realism, art for the sake of art was a no go as it had to serve a cause, at least the progress of Communism. Also, with their high praise for Surrealism, the editors of CHORS lean towards the arts and understanding of art of the western world more than towards their home of Soviet-Ukraine. By still giving platform to Ukrainian art and artists in their works, Kostec’kyj and the other editors were attempting to bring Ukrainian and western culture in contact. Because of this, historian Marko Robert Stech believes that Kostec’kyjs efforts were a major contribution to secure Ukrainian culture its place in the world.
Still, as liberal and lighthearted as these plans of a flowing movement without boundaries and limits, where everybody could join or leave whenever they wished to do so, Kostec’kyj was very passionate about his project. So passionate that he, according to Jurij Ševel’ev – co-editor of CHORS, freaked out at one occasion after an author, who had promised to publish in CHORS, published his works somewhere else.
Still, with these high staked aims for CHORS, Kostec’kyj even dared to contact Salvador Dali, one of the main figures of surrealism, to ask him in the name of CHORS to draw Dantes “Divine Comedy”. This emphasizes the sheer self confidence that Kostec’kyj had for CHORS if he thought that such a plan could be successful. The letter was designed as an “Open Letter” which was most likely planned to be published in a second edition on the culture of Spain in the very late 1940s or the very early 1950s. This edition however was never published and it is unknown if this letter has reached Dali in any other way. An answer is nowhere to be found in the estate of Kostec’kyj.