Vicente Guedero makes the case for a renewal of an anarchist mythos, a thread of story and imagination for the future that can inspire and challenge capitalism’s carrot/stick of end-times and saviours.
Surrealism and anarchism, past and present
From Freedom News UK
Last June, about fifty people gathered in the Eberhardt Press print shop in Portland, Oregon, to meet with legendary American activist Ben Morea and view a pop-up exhibition of his paintings. Morea was one of the founders of the anarchist affinity group Black Mask in New York in 1966 and also the catalyst for subsequent direct-action collectives like Up Against the Wall Motherfucker in 1968. He was a driving force behind the closing of the Museum of Modern Art in ‘66 and the occupation of the Fillmore East theatre in ’68, and his uncompromising anticapitalist and antiracist activism set the standard for what engaged radicalism could accomplish in the Vietnam War era. An artist since the early 1960s, his austere paintings and satirical graphics are everywhere visible in the distinctive pages of the Black Mask zine (ten issues; New York; November 1966–May 1968).
Remembering Matta
From An Archive November 30, 2023 By Mike Gouldhawke
A year and a couple of weeks ago, Matta passed away.
“Nature is the marvellous that the surrealist seeks”
From: https://anarchysecessionsubsistence.blogspot.com/
By Shaun Day-Woods
One of the most ubiquitous expressions in surrealist writing is the word ‘marvellous’, a term which harkens back to Andre Breton’s original declaration. In the first Surrealist Manifesto of 1924, the founder of the movement wrote ‘Let us not mince words, the marvellous is always beautiful, anything marvellous is beautiful, in fact only the marvellous is beautiful.’
Surrealism: The Emergence of a Radical Experiential Reality
From The Commoner by Luke Francis Beirne
In the early twentieth century, a group of artists in Paris saw that restrictive, arbitrary frameworks had been imposed upon society by structures of power. They recognized that these frameworks ran so deeply that they penetrated the mind and shaped the very way that it perceived reality. They also saw that things could be otherwise and took it upon themselves to develop a practice which could radically re-enchant the world and produce an alternative reality – a superior reality: surreality.
ToTW: Confluences and/or Oppositions...
I'm reading the new Ron Sakolsky book, Dreams of Anarchy and the Anarchy of Dreams, on the similarities and overlaps of surrealism and anarchist thought, which is obviously a relationship he's thought about for many years. He doesn't argue that all surrealists are anarchists, or that all anarchists are surrealists, but that there is a venn diagram, and that the overlap is where the yummiest stuff is.
Anarcho-Surrealism on Immediatism Podcast
Immediatism is pleased to feature a new book and another forthcoming. Dreams of Anarchy and the Anarchy of Dreams: Adventures at the Crossroads of Anarchy & Surrealism, by Ron Sakolsky, published by Autonomedia and distributed by Little Black Cart, is available now. The first episode (569), below, is a reading of the Preface of this new title. The other episodes (570-577) are selections from the forthcoming anarcho-surrealist collection Merlin With a Machine Gun, edited by Steven Cline.
Peculiar Mormyrid on Immediatism podcast
Immediatism is pleased to share three surrealist pieces from the magazine Peculiar Mormyrid. Minneapolis Athenor, the first piece, describes the insurrectionary response to George Floyd's murder. Our Game, the second piece, celebrates the patience of insurrectionary anarchists. The last text, Our World, the Dreamer, has an interesting take on the stance that people are not outside of Nature. Casi Cline claims that humans are cruel, foolish, and self-destructive because Nature is cruel, foolish, and self-destructive.
The Oystercatcher #18, on Immediatism podcast
Enjoy these four recordings of pieces from the latest issue of The Oystercatcher journal, which is full of gorgeous surrealist art not able to be represented through the podcast medium. charred discusses the condition and situation of being a settler in Beyond the Ecology of Presence: Being Anarchists on Indigenous Lands. Steven Cline celebrates chaos and challenges language in the surprising piece, Amok. Guy Girard describes the state of policing in Paris in Everybody Hates the Police!
Ron Sakolsky, on Immediatism
Two examples of Ron Sakolsky's writing are now available in audio on Immediatism podcast. "Surrealist Desire, Anarchy & the Poetry of Revolt" details the history and contemporary reality of the relationship between surrealism, situationism, and anarchism.
Regarding Surrealist Desire, listener ae says "Thanks for reading this piece from Sakolsky's 'Creating Anarchy.' This type of historical writing is really great and helps ground things in a context for understanding 20th century art movements, politics and how they interact and supersede each other. . . ."