BENGALURU: Surrealism, as a movement was conceptulaised in the 1920s by writers and artists, who experimented with ways of unleashing the subconscious imagination.
The concept took steam with Sigmund Freud’s theories of the struggle in the human mind between the conscious and unconscious.
The aim of surrealism was to reveal the unconscious and reconcile it with rational life following a movement that continued to inspire expression of personal desires through art and literature until the 1960.
Decades later, a few curious people are getting together to revive this tradition of creating art that frees the individual from the “rational” and releases the mind from the limitations of conventional thought.
This Saturday, the city will host an afternoon of creative collaboration and networking between visual and literary or poetic artists using the surrealist concepts of Exquisite Corpse and its variants.
Artists and writers will be introduced to the concept with sessions on Surrealism, Exquisite Corpse and Chinese Whisper by team Gathr.
“The aim was to aid alternative collaboration and networking. Usual networking events are all about people talking about their name, profession, resident city and college, which one tends to forget. We thought of aiding networking via a spontaneous collaborative session. This is when Exquisite Corpse came to our mind and hence we also have included a discussion on its roots and surrealism,” explains J Nishanth, junior culture manager at Koramangla Social.
Surrealists were essentially visual artists. The writer community grew a liking to it eventually and so did photographers, claims the 22 year old.
“We picked writers and designers because it’s easier for them to do an on spot collaboration. Photographers would need ways to edit their pictures and concrete subjects too, which can’t be done on spot,” adds Nishanth.
Rishabh Pandey, a freelancer who writes fiction on his blog, website and for journals is attending the event as it piques his interest in surrealism.
“Even the gaming session involving Chinese whisper and exquisite corpse sound interesting. I am hoping to collaborate with other artists, expand my network and explore new creations together. With such event, you look past people’s work, age, origins and form an emotional bond,” says the 25-year-old.