La Jornada: France: they expose the notable mark that Mexico left on the surrealists

As a sample of the intellectual and creative effervescence that Mexico awakened in the minds of the surrealists and a tribute to Leonora Carrington, a painter of that movement that most dedicated itself to this nation, the exhibition has been on display for a few days in the French town of Saint-Cirq-Lapopie, in Cahors. Surrealism and Mexico: Magnetic Mirrors (El surrealismo y México: Espejos magnéticos).

The International Center of Surrealism and World Citizenship (CISCM) hosts the exhibition, which will conclude next November, at the Tournié castle and the Émile Joseph-Rignault House (joined to the former home of André Breton).

The institution disseminated through a text by the poet and musician Théo Plantefol that explores how the encounter with our country transformed, among others, the vision and art of the French creators Breton, Benjamin Péret, Antonin Artaud and Pierre Mabille, as well as the Chilean Roberto Matta and Leonora Carrington, of British origin.

Such artists came to Mexico and discovered its treasures, whether for travel, exile, political or poetic reasons; “Each one fully embraced the multifaceted nature of these territories. Documentary photographs, objects and works of art from these trips will be the witnesses chosen to convey this extraordinary experience.”

In parallel, a monographic catalog was published on the occasion of Surrealism and Mexico: Magnetic mirrors.

As a result of the research for the exhibition, the CISCM took “ecological, scientific and economic responsibility at the center of the curatorial approach, prioritizing a traveling exhibition throughout France to disseminate its findings.”

Explorer of the universal subconscious

The collaboration of the Saint-Cirq-Lapopie town council and the Leonora Carrington Council also represents a tribute to the artist who became nationalized and is the greatest example of dedication, “body and soul, to Mexico. She understood that in this place, past and present merge in the reality of myth.”

According to the text, Carrington’s Mexican work “paved the way for a new mythology at the crossroads of all cultures. His artistic creations of the time alternated between painting, tapestry and the creation of masks. Through bridges between different imaginaries, he explored the universal subconscious.”

Around the activity, included in the cultural program for the Mexico-France Bicentennial, quotes are disseminated that demonstrate its relevance. The poet and playwright Antonin Artaud wrote: “I came to Mexico in search of a new idea of ​​man.” Meanwhile, the theorist of surrealism and writer, André Bretón, noted: “Mexican roads enter the same spaces where automatic writing flourishes and endures.”

The exhibition is based on the appreciation that Mexico – due to its myths, history, landscapes, culture, art and revolts – seemed predestined to surrealism. “Many artists, irresistibly attracted by it, found there new understandings of the human condition, until then unexplored by the Western mentality.”

Lucha libre is included in this exhibition due to its importance in the Mexican imagination, as a staging “that is characterized by the masks worn by the wrestlers when entering the ring, who are situated at an intermediate point between character, wrestler and living myth. This art form, in its own right, offers unexpected perspectives on pictorial experimentation, photography and performance”.