Surreal Continuum

Surreal Continuum: Revisiting, Remapping, Reimagining Surrealism is a two-day festival programme that re-examines the movement on its centenary, reimagining and remapping it by examining interrelated movements and histories typically regarded as disconnected or rendered completely unseen, as well as by celebrating its overlooked artists and proposing other reference points.

‘Jazz is my religion, and surrealism is my point of view’,[1] writes Ted Joans, capturing in just a few words the eclectic and transformative quality of Surrealism. Often mistaken for irrationality, Surrealism has been a profound medium for exploring and achieving liberation, rebellion, and the remaking of reality. Emerging in the period following the First World War, the movement sought to combat western rationalism by expressing the profundity of the mind through automatism, writing, poetry, and psychoanalysis. André Breton’s 1924 Manifesto of Surrealism defined it as ‘psychic automatism’,[2] describing a mode of thought unfettered by reason and morality. But despite its global resonance, Surrealism has often been narrowly framed as a male, European movement. Surreal Continuum: Revisiting, Remapping, Reimagining Surrealism counters this narrative by engaging with other contributors to Surrealist thought and practice across different geographies, such as Suzanne Césaire, Joyce Mansour, and Ted Joans, while also forging new connections to the works of contemporary practitioners such as Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich, Moses März, Emilie Moorhouse, Savanna ‘Sweetwater’ Morgan, Fiston Mwanza Mujila, Ben Okri, Lisa Spalt, Yoko Tawada, and others without wanting to force them into the surrealist box

The programme revisits, for example, the work of Césaire, a Martinican writer who transformed Surrealism into a political tool of Caribbean liberation during the Vichy regime. Her writings in the literary magazine Tropiques underlined Surrealism’s revolutionary potential, describing it as ‘a powerful war weaponry’[3] against colonial oppression. The festival includes a screening of and conversation around Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich’s 2024 film The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire, which explores Césaire’s life, legacy, and poetic vision, reimagining her voice and influence through a cinematic lens. Elsewhere, the output of writers such as surrealist poet Joyce Mansour are recontextualized for the contemporary moment through readings, conversations, and new translations. And while critics such as Sarane Alexandrian argue that Surrealism died with Breton in 1966, it nonetheless endured, often in more free-flowing ways than what Breton espoused. In the German Democratic Republic, for example, Surrealism represented a counterbalance to Socialist Realism and was promoted as a liberating force by Karlheinz Barck and Lothar Lang[4], among others. A site-specific sound installation further engages with the legacies of Surrealism by weaving together archival recordings, poetic fragments, and newly commissioned audio poems inspired by writers with an affinity for surrealist aesthetic from a range of different contexts. This includes readings of the works of Donte Collins, Kamala Surayya Das, Elke Erb, Joyce Mansour, Meret Oppenheim, Bert Papenfuß-Gorek, Nicanor Parra, Shang Qin, and others, highlighting a transnational and multilingual approach to surrealist poetics.

Remapping is also present in the Surreal Continuum programme with researcher, writer, and mapmaker Moses März’s installation serving as a bridge between historical and contemporary perspectives. Through a dynamic interplay of archival materials, cartographic experiments, and newly commissioned works, März reimagines surrealist mapping as a living, evolving practice.

Following the celebration of Surrealism’s centenary in 2024, Surreal Continuum rekindles the spirit of a movement that has historical precedence, shattering artistic, cultural, and scientific boundaries. By amplifying voices and practices often eclipsed by dominant narratives, the programme illuminates how Surrealism has transcended its original roots to become a global, transformative force. From struggles for liberation and identity to subversions of dominant ideologies, the festival reveals Surrealism’s extraordinary ability to dissolve cultural, temporal, and ideological barriers.

[1] As quoted in ‘July 4th – (Ted Joans)’, The Allen Ginsberg Project (4 July 2020), https://allenginsberg.org/2020/07/s-j4/.

[2] Andre Breton, Manifestoes of Surrealism (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1972), 26.

[3] Suzanne Césaire, The Great Camouflage: Writings of Dissent (1941–1945), ed. Daniel Maximin (Wesleyan University Press, 2012), 37.

[4] Gerrit-Jan Berendse, Echoes of Surrealism: Challenging Socialist Realism in East German Literature, 1945–1990 (New York: Berghahn, 2021), 5.