Surrealist NYC

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Out now: Imagining Surrealist Revolution: Refusing Miserabilism / Emancipating Desire, by Ron Sakolsky.

"A subversive collage of essays, poems, and stories that each in their own way imagines what it is about surrealism as a revolutionary force of transformation that makes it such a marvelous dancing partner for anarchy. Together the pieces of this puzzle issue a call for emancipatory desire in motion swirling madly beyond the miserabilist rationality that confines us behind the prison bars of reality. As a unique part of this collaborative project, all of the dancing words within are bathed in the oneiric light of the anarcho-surrealist 'double portraits' of Guy Girard."

Cover image: The Young Errico Malatesta Studying Cryptozoology In Accord With Piotr Kropotkin’s Mutual Aid, by Guy Girard

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Out July 31: Stuart Inman's new poetry collection Remora from Broken Sleep Books. And Stuart will be reading from Remora in an online launch event on July 30.

Remora can be ordered from Blackwell’s with free delivery to the U.S.

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This September Lunar Ring Finger, Annie Le Brun's 1977 poetry collection with drawings by Toyen, will be published in English translation by Black Sun Lit.

[surrealistnyc]

Out now: Brooke Rothwell's new poetry collection This Gold of Time.

[surrealistnyc]

Infosurr #179 is out now to subscribers:

The issue thus opens with a significant feature on Elisabeth Lenk, whose portrait appears on the cover. This article presents her research aimed at reconciling surrealism and critical theory, ‘in new forms of collective action that express a radical critique of the status quo, an “absolute gap” (Charles Fourier), a “great refusal” (Herbert Marcuse).

Tributes are paid to Daniel Abel and to the publisher of Portuguese Surrealism, Luis Pachedo. A necessary reminder of Michel Zimbacca’s life’s work is provided: ‘a rare example of unwavering loyalty to an idea and a passion for re-enchanting life’, embodying ‘the originality of a waking dreamer, a dream-awakener’. We highlight ‘the unbridled creativity that Gaston Chaissac never relinquished’. Reflections are offered on Art brut (‘The Key to the Fields opens the door to the Grand Palais’) and on the donation to the Centre Pompidou by the collector Bruno Decharme. A look back at Jan Švankmajer’s Alice, ‘in the Prague tradition of shadow, fear and surrealist humour’. In the same vein, our issue concludes with a presentation of issue no. 103 of Analogon.

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I'm very sorry to hear of the death of Jacques Lacomblez two days ago on June 27. Though I never met him, his works have struck me since I first saw them and his publications have appeared regularly on Surrealist NYC. This painting, Rumeurs de l'incendie, was shown at the international collective exhibition La Chasse à l'object du désir presented by the Liaison Surréaliste à Montréal in 2014.

[surrealistnyc]

Valery Oisteanu has just published a new bilingual French-English collection: Souterrain des souvenirs déformés, Underground of Distorted Memories.

"Valery Oisteanu’s collection *Souterrain des souvenirs déformés* presents itself as a surrealist cartography of contemporary New York, haunted by the spectres of the historical avant-garde. "An American of Romanian origin and a figure in Lower Manhattan’s underground scene, Oisteanu deploys a poetics of testimony and memory. The book opens on the immediate surroundings of the East Village and Washington Square, captured in the urgency of an urban catastrophe. The writing speaks of the collapse of architecture as well as the disappearance of the subject, a central theme of the poem “Becoming Invisible.” The collection’s originality lies in its genealogical roots: Oisteanu revives the Dadaist and Surrealist lineage to inject it into the electronic and technological flow of the 21st century. The collection is a collision of jarring images, tributes to departed artists, and shamanic invocations. It serves as a poetic tipping point toward a space of contemporary resistance, where Dadaist humor and Oisteanu’s Zen experience act as bulwarks against normativity and its market."

[surrealistnyc]

Jean-Pierre Paraggio's Soapbox is now up to issues 253-255, each page featuring his eclectic selection of poetry and image. For PDFs, contact [email protected].

[surrealistnyc]

De la conquête à l'insurrection de l'Algérie (1830-1954): A previously unpublished essay by Benjamin Péret about France's violent colonial history in Algeria is out now.

"Un livre essentiel pour comprendre que la violence de la colonisation qui se déroule sur plus d’un siècle est un élément majeur pour appréhender les difficultés actuelles des rapports entre la France et l’Algérie.

"Tous les amoureux du surréalisme en général et de Benjamin Péret en particulier auront à coeur de lire ce texte inédit du poète qui n’a eu de cesse que de dénoncer l’ordre capitaliste et colonial" 

[surrealistnyc]

Hazel Cline's new novella Falling Northward is out now:

Arden Valley… a liminal zone that sits between two parallel mountain ranges, north and south, reaching to the sea. A river meanders down the center and a road runs next to it. The train travels perpendicular, and at the crossroads sits Ardenville, a town isolated at the edge of reality. “Everything comes in on the train. Everything leaves by the train or by the grave. Except for the few who take the road north and never return.” Falling Northward is the story of Ardenville: the people, animals, the rivers and valleys that inhabit it. Each chapter offers a new way of seeing the real and imagined, both the inner and outer worlds of the Arden Valley. There is a public library, a coffee shop, and a bookstore. The Pegasus Line brings in returning locals and travellers alike, back to join the story of Ardenville, as if it had all already been written years ago. For some it is a constant, a place of comfort. For others, it is a place to venture beyond the forgotten things, to find a place where they can live peacefully together.

[surrealistnyc]

Alcheringa #6 will be released on June 20 at Galerie Les Yeux Fertiles in Paris on the occasion of the Paris Surrealist Group's exhibition Tout doit apparaître!, which runs through June 23.

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Out now: Por dentro dos campos magnéticos – surrealismo, situacionismo, contracultura, collected essays by Penelope Rosement in Portuguese from 100 cabeças.

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Dreamdew #40 is out now with dream accounts from André Breton and Meret Oppenheim and an analysis by Georges Sebbag. To subscribe, contact [email protected].

[surrealistnyc]

From the luminous exhibit Scandalous: Women in Surrealism at Richard Saltoun, 19 E. 19th St., New York up until July 2 and highly recommended. Clockwise from upper left: Manina; Poppy Seed, 1964 by Eileen Agar; The Sunset Birth, c. 1942, by Ithell Colquhoun; Jinetes (The Horsemen), 1977, by Leonora Carrington.

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This Saturday in Paris Lurdes Martinez and Jose Manuel Rojo will give a talk about the Surrealist Group of Madrid at the anarchist bookshop Publico.

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A new online journal, Les Serrures du Possible, launched this month with its first number devoted to occultation and pieces by David Nadeau, John Welson, Ody Saban, Nelly Sanchez, Slim Smith, Jean-Noël Cuénod, and many others.

[surrealistnyc]

Out now: "Beyond The Blindfold is a 30 page study of the history and usage of blindfolds. With a specific focus on Surrealism and British Folklore the text explores both personal and collective experience. Written by Joe Simpkins, the text also features contributions from The Manchester Surrealist Group and a talking cabbage."