IN THE VERY BOWELS OF CHANGES: SURREALISM AND ANTIFASCISM

As an artistic and political movement, Surrealism had an international reach and internationalist beliefs. Rooted in art and literature, it cherished much wider ambitions: to revolutionize society and redefine life itself. “‘Transform the world,’ said Marx; ‘change life,’ said Rimbaud: these two goals make only one for us,” André Breton declared in 1935. Since their emergence in the 1920s, Surrealists have confronted a number of political programs that contradicted the ideals of equality and freedom. They would condemn Europe’s colonial projects, organize themselves against fascists, fight in the Spanish Civil War, join the resistance during World War II—to be denounced as “degenerate” by the Nazi, face internment or persecution, ultimately flee Europe or die on the battlefields or in camps. Their resistance was art itself. Through poetry, painting, photography, collage, and exhibition-making they strived to expose flaws in the supposedly rational message of the supposedly rational civilization of the West. As fascism gained ground in Europe, as Nazification of Germany progressed, as World Wars and colonial wars broke out—Surrealists wouldn’t budge; protagonists of Surrealism remained radical in their ideological and political choices. At the same time, these upheavals resulted in extraordinary encounters and a truly global solidarity: Prague would stand with Coyoacán, Mexico; Cairo, with the Spanish Republic; Marseille, with Martinique’s Fort-de-France; Puerto Rico and Paris, with Chicago; and London, with New York. Surrealist thought and action have had an all-encompassing simultaneousness to them. Accordingly, the show unfolds as if on a map rather than a timeline. The intent here is to present Surrealism as an international movement invested heavily in society and politics—in line with how its members perceived it.