Literature Festival Explores a Different Story of Surrealism: April 11–12 at HKW
8.4.2025
Surreal Continuum
Revisiting, Remapping, Reimagining Surrealism
Readings, Conversations, Performances, DJ Set, Artist Talks, Installations, Film Screenings
11.–12.4.2025
free entry
The festival Surreal Continuum takes the centenary of surrealism as an opportunity to retell its story. A two-day programme revolves around often overlooked artists and geographies and their hidden connections and influences.
Despite its global resonance, Surrealism has often been narrowly framed as a male-dominated 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.
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.
‘Jazz is my religion, and surrealism is my point of view’, yet summarises Ted Joans 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.
Programme
Readings, Conversations, Performances, DJ Set, Artist Talks, Installations, Film Screenings
Friday 11 April - Sunday 27 April 2025
Memories of a Time When All Successful Revolutions Were Made By the Message of the Poets
Map installation by Moses Mäerz
Sylvia Wynter Foyer
Friday 11 April
12:00-19:00
Video Installation
Bessie Head Foyer
12:00-19:00
Audio Installation
Gunta Stölzl Foyer
18:00-18:15
Safi Faye Haal
18:15-19:15
Everyday Wonder: Surrealism and the Renewal of the Imagination Keynote by Ben Okri followed by a conversation with Dzekashu MacViban
Keynote, Conversation
Safi Faye Hall
In English with simultaneous German translation
19:45-21:15
Molecules of Revolt: Re-reading and Translating Joyce Mansour
with Emilie Moorhouse and Lisa Spalt, moderated by Anna Luhn
Reading, Conversation
Safi Faye Hall
In English with simultaneous German translation
21:30-22:30
Dreaming Across Languages
Reading and Conversation with Yoko Tawada, moderated by Ulrike Vedder
Reading, Conversation
Safi Faye Hall
In German with simultaneous English translation
22:45
Only the word itself means what it said
Performance
Angie Stardust Foyer
Saturday 12 April
12:00-19:00
Video Installation
Bessie Head Foyer
12:00-19:00
Audio Installation
Gunta Stölzl Foyer
14:00-15:00
Memories of a Time When All Successful Revolutions Were Made By the Message of the Poets
Map Installation by Moses Mäerz
Sylvia Wynter Foyer
15:15-17:00
Film Screening
In English and French with English subtitles
17:15-18:30
La gran historia de la filosofía occidental
Safi Faye Haal
In Mandarin and English with English subtitles
19:00-20:15
Surrealism in the GDR: The Legacy of Elke Erb
With Christian Filips, Birgit Kirberg, Marwa Younes Almokbel, and Shane Anderson
Readings, Discussion
Safi Faye Hall
In German with simultaneous English translation
20:30-21:30
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida
With Shehan Karunatilaka, moderated by Kenan Khadaj
Readings, Discussion
Safi Faye Hall
In English with simultaneous German translation
21:45-22:45
Performance by Fiston Mwanza Mujila and Pablo Gīw
Performance
Magnus Hirschfeld Bar
22:45
DJ Set by Refuge Worldwide DJs
Magnus Hirschfeld Bar
Partner
Surreal Continuum is a project by HKW in collaboration with EXC 2020 Temporal Communities.
Visit Information
Opening Times
Wed.–Mon. 12:00–19:00
Free admission on Mondays.
Extended opening hours during evening programmes.
Childcare with programme
HKW offers free childcare for many of its programmes. For further information visit hkw.de
Current information about visiting and accessibility.
Weltwirtschaft Restaurant is open daily, from 12:00–00:00.
Contact
Jan Trautmann
Pressesprecher
Lead Communications Officer
Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW)
John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10
10557 Berlin
T: + 49 (0) 30 397 87 157
presse@hkw.de