Surrealism is a literary and artistic movement that appeared in France in 1924, written by André Breton. It can be translated as "above realism" or "more than real". For its instigator, it is a dictation of thought, where reason and aesthetic or moral concerns must be erased. For Breton, surrealism is justified by a desire for emancipation: by freeing the unconscious to reconcile it with the conscious, humanity will be able to free itself from the constraints imposed by logic and reason. The artists and writers will therefore be inspired by the Dada movement, as well as the theses of Sigmund Freud, and the works of the Symbolists, in particular those of Gustave Moreau and Odilon Redon. In literature, this approach will manifest itself in curious experiments, such as automatic writing or the exquisite corpse. In art, different currents will stand out: we speak of organic surrealism (Joan Miro, André Masson, Max Ernst), for those who use automatic techniques to free their creative imagination, or dreamlike surrealism (Salvador Dali, René Magritte) for those who use traditional techniques to represent surrealistic subjects (visions, dreams, hallucinatory scenes, impulses, fears, phobias, desires…). Surrealism has a face: that of Dali and his mustaches, but it also has emblematic works in very different mediums, such as the sculptures of Alberto Giacometti (Woman with the Cut Throat, Hands holding the Void ...), or the photographs of Man Ray (Black and White, Violin d'Ingres, The Gift…). The Swiss artist Meret Oppenheim for her part composed with these different mediums (sculptures, photographs, ready-mades) to transcribe with poetry the extent of this current. The recurring themes and symbols of surrealism are: unexpected encounters, incongruous juxtapositions, dehumanizing masks (African, gas or industrial), the praying mantis (embodying fear of women), as well as puns (especially between the title of the work and its composition) and other visual puns, such as the famous “This is not a pipe” by Belgian René Magritte.
