French Cultural Institute in Alexandria to host “Echoes of Contemporary Surrealism” exhibition on June 26

CAIRO – 8 May 2022: From June 26 to July 20, the French Cultural Institute in Alexandria will host the exhibition “Echoes of Contemporary Surrealism: The Labyrinth of Dreams and Surreal Games.”

It comes as a new event following the International Surrealism Exhibition that was held in Cairo from February 15 to 19, in association with Saint-Cirq-Lapopie.

“The idea was born from the joint work of the surrealists from Egypt, France and all over the world. This strong echo will only be achieved by making surrealism resonate in Alexandria within the French Cultural Institute. A collection of artworks, surreal films, and surreal mobile films from many international surrealist groups and new intersecting workshops between Cairo and Alexandria will also be screened,” said the organizers.

According to the organizers, the planned scenography for the exhibition will be an immersive experience between contemporary digital art and simple maze-shaped materials, containing surreal games.

By following the constantly evolving objective algorithm of chance, the concept of surreal games endlessly reinvents itself and re-emerges in a number of different contexts of contemporary surrealist activities.

Surreal games aim to liberate words and images from the constraints of the rational, logical order, to obtain the glow of bridges between the spaces of the collective unconsciousness, as surreal games represent an opportunity to reconsider objective chance as a space for renewed creation and an opportunity for unexpected encounters.

Such spontaneous activities are similar to what can be discovered in dreams, in the mental play of poetic imagination, in the ecstasy of the systematic disorder of the senses.

Throughout their history, the surrealists have developed many forms of creative cooperatives and collective mind games out of the intentional rejection of individual artistic value, and to allow the realization of the inspiration of the collective unconsciousness.