SURREALISM-PLAYS

Surrealism-Plays is a site devoted to the history and creative works of the Surrealist Movement, as well as the anti-tradition of avant-garde theatre.

SURREALISM & AVANT-GARDE THEATRE

NEWS

 

NEW BOOK PUBLICATION

Journey To Mexico - Revolutionary Messages & The Tarahumara 
by Antonin Artaud

Translated by Rainer J. Hanshe
Edited & Introduced by Stewart Kendall

Published by Contra Mundum Press 
March 4, 2024

A new collection of Artaud writings, documenting his journey to Mexico in 1936.

"Journey to Mexico collects very nearly all of Artaud's writings related to his voyage to the land of the Tarahumara: the writings he prepared prior to this journey; the pieces he published in Mexico and the lectures he delivered there; the essays, letters, and poems that he wrote in the years after his journey, reflecting on and reframing his experiences. A selection of letters written before, during, and after the trip conveys the very personal - the physical, emotional, and financial - challenges of the journey."


 

ART EXHIBIT

Histoire de ne pas rire. Surrealism in Belgium
(History of Surrealism in Belgium)
BOZAR - Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels

March 18, 2024 to June 16, 2024

This exhibit celebrates 100 years of Surrealism in Belgium, and includes works by Paul Nougé, René Magritte, Jane Graverol, Marcel Mariën, Rachel Baes, Leo Dohmen, Paul Delvaux, Max Ernst, Yves Tanguy, Salvador Dalí, Giorgio De Chirico, and many others.

 

ART EXHIBIT

IMAGINE! 100 Years of International Surrealism

A major exhibit that celebrates the 100 year anniversary of André Breton's First Manifesto of Surrealism and the beginnings of the Surrealist Movement in Paris. Featuring works by Max Ernst, Giorgio de Chirico, Salvador Dalí, Joan Miró, Jane Graverol, Dorothea Tanning, Man Ray, Leonor Fini, and others. The exhibition will open at the The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium on Feb 21, 2024 and continue to Jul 21, 2024. It will then travel internationally to other museums through 2026, including the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Kunsthalle in Hamburg, the Fundación MAPFRE in Madrid, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

 

FILM SERIES

Buñuel in Mexico
Museum of Modern Art in New York City

February 1-21, 2024

Screenings of all of Buñuel's films made in Mexico 1946-1965

Gran Casino (1946) 
El gran calavera (The Great Carouser) (1949) 
Los olvidados (The Young and the Damned) (1950) 
The Devil and the Flesh (Susana/Demonio y carne) (1950) 
A Loveless Woman (Una mujer sin amor) (1951) 
The Daughter of Deceit (Don Quintin el amargao) (1951)
Mexican Bus Ride (Subida al cielo) (1951) 
The Brute (El bruto) (1952) 
Robinson Crusoe (1952) 
El (This Strange Passion) (1953) 
Illusion Travels by Streetcar (La ilusion viaja en tranvia) (1953)
Wuthering Heights (Abismos de pasion) (1954)
River of Death (El rio y la muerte) (1954) 
The Criminal Life of Archibaldo Cruz (1955) 
La Mort en ce jardin (Death in the Garden) (1956) 
Nazarin (1958) 
La Fievre monte a El Pao (1959) 
The Young One (La Joven) (1960) 
Viridiana (1961) 
The Exterminating Angel (El angel exterminador) (1962) 
Simon of the Desert (Simon del desierto) (1965) 

NEW BOOK PUBLICATION

On the Needles of These Days 
by Jindřich Heisler & Jindřich Štyrský
Published by Twisted Spoon Press
February 2004

Combining visual artist Jindřich Štyrský’s photographs from the 1930s with an extended prose poem by fellow Surrealist Jindřich Heisler, originally published in Nazi-occupied Prague in 1941.





ART EXHIBIT

Myth and Massacre
Ernst Wilhelm Nay and André Masson
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

December 8, 2023 to April 28, 2024

The first exhibition devoted to the artistic relationship between French Surrealist André Masson and German modernist Ernst Wilhelm Nay.

 

DANCE PERFORMANCE

The Rite of Spring
Choreographed by Pina Bausch
Los Angeles Music Center

February 8-11, 2024

Pina Bausch's legendary staging of the Stravinsky ballet, recreated with a troupe of more than thirty dancers from thirteen African countries. 

OPERA PERFORMANCE

Wozzeck
by Alban Berg
Bayerische Staatoper Munich

October 21-November 30, 2023

Co-production by the Bayerische Staatoper Munich and the New National Theatre Tokyo of Alban Berg's legendary opera, based on Georg Buchner's play. 





NEW BOOK PUBLICATION 

Night of Loveless Nights
by Robert Desnos

Translated by Lewis Warsh

Published by Winter Editions  May 23, 2023

A long out-of-print translation of surrealist Robert Desnos' poetic work, presented alongside the original text

"Desnos's NIGHT OF LOVELESS NIGHTS, written in tribute to legendary French chanteuse Yvonne George in 1926, is a maelstrom of romantic despair, political upswell, and psychedelic irony."

NEW BOOK PUBLICATION

Toyen
Catalogue from the Hamburger Kunsthalle exhibit chronicling the life and work of arguably the greatest Czech surrealist artist.

Published February 24, 2022





NEW BOOK PUBLICATION

Sanctus Fumigaci - Collected Works Volume 2 (Short Plays)
by Todd Bash

A new edition by Nachthunde Publishing 
October 15, 2021

"SANCTUS FUMIGACI - Collected Works Volume 2 brings together eight of Bash's most challenging plays, spanning the years 1989 through 2005. Provocative, haunting and deeply personal, they are necessary reading for anyone with a serious interest in contemporary theatre, the avant-garde and surrealism."

 

COMMENTARY

WHAT DOES SURREALISM MEAN TO YOU?

For me, Surrealism is about two things: Liberation and Exploration.

Explore, with complete freedom, the far reaches of one's imagination, dreams and desires. Question. Experiment. Create. Collaborate. Explore what is hidden in the shadows of the subconscious. Explore the irrational, the mysterious and the spontaneous. Lift stones and investigate whole worlds of life that exist, underneath the surface, where the average person rarely takes the time to look. Celebrate the marvelous elements of everyday life. Notice the clouds in the sky. Notice the enormity of our Universe. Notice the peeling paint on a wall and how it somehow resembles a magnificent, abstract work of art. Notice the display inside a shop window and how the figures and arrangement, when looked at through fresh eyes, form a mysterious image, like a painting by De Chirico. Transform everyday objects into works of art. Spend each day as if it is your first twenty-four hours on earth, as if you are seeing everything for the first time. Take a walk, or drive, or train ride, with no plan or schedule. Wherever life leads you, absorb, discover and celebrate. Delve deep. Reach far. Try to touch the very core of one's self, in its purest form, the way it was at the moment of birth - raw, primal and innocent - unaffected by the external world and its influences. Explore!

Liberate one's self from any tradition that oppresses the freedom of the individual. Question everything! If organized religion has taught you to repress your primal dreams and desires, and to feel shame and fear - discard it as if it is the plague! If a government has told you that it is heroic to die for one's country, and acceptable to kill others in a time of war - disassociate yourself from that nation! Art is about bringing individuals together, to explore and to create, not to murder and destroy. If a teacher has discouraged your creativity and pressured you to write or paint or think following a certain tradition - no longer trust that professor! If a job is taking all of your time and energy, preventing you from exploring and creating - quit that job! Find another way to earn a living! Question everything! Do only what is right for you and your pursuit of the marvelous. Liberate your imagination and desires!


IS SURREALISM STILL AN ACTIVE AND RELEVANT MOVEMENT IN THE ARTS?

While the surrealist movement and many of its principles are something that, on a personal level, mean a great deal to me, there are times I feel that, as a unified, active movement, Surrealism ceased to exist by the late 1960s. Actually, its decline had begun shortly after World War II.

To me, Surrealism, as an active movement, emerged out of World War I and flourished during the 1920s and 1930s. At the time, Paris was the artistic center of the world. (There was no other city like it. Picasso was there and Stravinsky composed The Rite of Spring there.) Surrealists from all over the world united in Paris. Buñuel, Dalí and Miró arrived from Spain, Ernst from Germany, Magritte from Belgium, Man Ray from the USA, Breton, Eluard and Artaud from France. They were unified and active, holding meetings every day. They published a surrealist magazine, operated a surrealist art gallery, opened a Bureau For Surrealist Research, participated in public demonstrations, and had a publishing company that printed dozens of surrealist books and pamphlets. In addition, Buñuel's films Un Chein Andalou and L'Age D'Or were being screened at Paris cinemas, while Artaud was artistic director of The Alfred Jarry Theatre, devoted to his Theatre of Cruelty. 

During World War II, the Surrealists were dispersed all over the globe. Some were killed during the war, while a few others committed suicide. Soon after, Surrealism, as a unified and active movement, began to decline. It continued under André Breton's guidance into the 1960s, but when Breton died, it seemed to mark the end of an era. There are certainly writers and artists today who have been influenced by surrealism. You can even see how surrealism has infiltrated popular culture, with the influence of Dalí and Magritte found in advertisements and cartoons. Surrealism is still very much alive. It's everywhere. However, the question is, as an organized and active movement, does it still exist, or is it just a part of history?

To my knowledge, there is no city in the world today where Surrealists have united, as they did in Paris, to live, breathe, collaborate and create revolutionary change. I don't believe there is a city, an artistic center, as Paris was during the early part of the 20th Century. That was another era, long gone. Perhaps in the 21st Century, the Web is a new opportunity to unite Surrealists.

I believe Surrealism is still relevant. However, I question if there is any sort of united front among Surrealists in the world today. Perhaps it has become something more personal and individualistic. As an active, unified movement, it may be just a part of history.


Todd Bash


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