THE first of two fundraising evening events to accompany the "Surrealism: Wellspring of the Imagination" exhibition on at the Wyeside Arts Centre, at Builth Wells, takes place tonight Friday, March 6.
"Surrealism is Dead. Long Live Surrealism" follows on March 20.
Exhibition artists John Richardson and John Welson, are hosting the evenings on Surrealism as fundraisers for Wyeside.
The main exhibition, which runs until April 1, seeks to show that the dreamlike artistic genre of surrealism is alive and well by providing evidence of contemporary surrealist activity and of the continuing relevance of the surrealist critique of the dull world of the reality-principle, referred to in the First Surrealist Manifesto as ‘the unacceptable human condition’.
Tonight's event, starting at 7pm, is an evening of readings by surrealists living in Wales, includes Jean Bonnin, Neil Coombs, David Greenslade, John Richardson and John Welson.
This highlights that surrealism was originally a movement of poets likeAndré Breton, Paul Éluard, Louis Aragon, Philippe Soupault and that its key precursors were writers such as Lautréamont and Rimbaud – without a bowler hat or melting clock in sight!
The evening will include a short overview of surrealism with readings from each of the contributors of their own work and that of other surrealists.
The second event ‘Surrealism is Dead, Long Live Surrealism’ will be held on Friday, March 20, with a presentation by John Richardson and John Welson rebutting the widely held but mistaken view that surrealism ‘was something between the wars and largely to do with Salvador Dali’ and, instead, positions it as an emancipatory world view with an international presence and a continuing contemporary relevance.
The evening will include an overview of the precursors to surrealism; its origins; key themes for example, Black Humour, Desire, Mad Love and Revolt; and practice, focusing particularly on cinema, poetry, objects, collage, painting and photography. There will be time for questions and, who knows, maybe answers!
Each of the Surrealism evenings are kindly being run by the artists in their own time for Wyeside Arts Centre. Each of the evenings will be £5 per person with cabaret style seating in the gallery, meaning space is limited.
Tickets are available from Wyeside’s box office on 01982552555 or via their website at www.wyeside.co.uk
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