LONDON INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF SURREALISM

The London International Festival of Surrealism came to a close on Sunday 9th July. The response to the Festival has been fantastic -- even better than we had hoped. We would like to thank of all you who have taken part with such enthusiasm and excitement, and also to thank those of you who have already begun to send us your results and reports from around the world.

We are now starting to collate the texts, images, photos, objects, etc. that the Festival has generated into the Festival album. This album will be distributed in the form of a CD and will be available free to all contributors. Please note that it will only be available to contributors -- in other words, if you would like a copy of the album, you must contribute something to it yourself. We have chosen to make this stipulation as a continuation of the DIY spirit of the Festival itself: neither the Festival nor the album are designed for the passive consumption of those who have not taken part.

We will be pleased to receive all kinds of contributions arising from the Festival, whether they have arisen from the games we distributed beforehand, your own autonomous play, or any other kind of Surrealist activity which took place during the Festival period (26th June - 9th July 2006). Contributions should be emailed to us at la_belle_tenebreuse@hotmail.co.uk. If you are intending to send a very large file, please check with us first about the file size so that you can be sure of getting it to us safely through our mail server. Alternatively we can supply a postal address on request. We will be happy to receive material in any format (PC/Mac compatibility issues permitting -- again, if in doubt please check with us first), and the material does not necessarily have to be in English (although translations would be appreciated wherever possible).

The deadline for getting your material to us is Friday 1st September 2006.

The most important part of the Festival was the poetic experiences it brought forth, rather than the texts, images or other "outputs" that resulted from that experience. Creating material for the album on the basis of your Festival activities should be a pleasure, not just another chore on your "to do" list. Indeed the two weeks of the Festival were merely an intensification of our usual playful pleasures: what made the Festival "special" in that sense was not that it was going to generate a lot of texts or images or "work" in any sense, but simply that it gave us all an opportunity to play collectively on a wider international scale than ever before, and to focus our attention on daily play a little more explicitly than we might otherwise have done. Play, poetry and the pursuit of the Marvellous are not just special treats for Festival time. They are the stuff of everyday Surrealist life. Change life, transform the world!

MORE FROM THE FESTIVAL: Found objects presented by Kathleen Fox

MORE FROM THE FESTIVAL: Frottage drawing by Kathleen Fox

MORE FROM THE FESTIVAL: A DRAWING GAME

PORTRAIT OF JACK THE RIPPER for the London International Festival of Surrealism, by Paul Cross (Surrealist London Action Group)

CAPITULUS LVI: INTERNATIONAL DETOURNEMENT GAME (Spring 2006) ~ SLAG CD

SOME PIECES BY OUR SURREALIST COMRADES IN QUEBEC

Box of dreams by Alexandre Fatta:

La droga de cada noche by Enrique Lechuga:


Mr Tornade tient le fil by David Nadeau:

Untitled poem by Dominic Tétrault:

La maligne torpeur des éléments
Jointe aux bijoux vulgaires de la compréhension
Activement en contemplation
Récure le fond du ciel
En petit maillon secs
Pour le rebord de l’éternelle castration jubilatoire

Le moment choisi pour l’action se perpétue
En signes glauques qui purgent le ciment du céleste
Entre les omoplates et le cervelet
En pierres rougeoyantes
Pour les éclats supérieurs
En manches de robe
Et le calvaire des civilisations
Accoutumées à leur présence sans sacrilèges grivois

L’éperon du désir en pointe fine avec le sauvage
Capture le limon en courbe féline et boîte complexe
Sous forme capitonnée de la membrane ensanglantée

Le vouloir de la chair est surtout en phase
Avec le rêve bleu et rouge transformant
Si le cœur est en acceptation

(Québec, 25 mars 2006)

Malicious torpor of the elements
Joined to the vulgar jewels of comprehension
Actively in contemplation
Scour the bottom of the sky
In tiny and dry link
For the edge of the eternal joyful castration

The moment chosen for the action remains
In shady signs which purge the concrete of the celestial
Between the scapulas and the cerebellum
In rusting stones
For the higher glares
In dress cufflinks
And the martyrdom of civilizations
Accustomed with their presence without bawdy sacrileges

The spur of the desire spiking with the wilderness
Capture the silt in feline curve and complex box
In upholstered form of the bloody membrane

The willingness of flesh is especially in phase
With the transforming blue and red dream
If the heart is in acceptance

(Quebec, 25th March 2006)

MORE FROM THE FESTIVAL: A DRAWING GAME

Portrait of Jack the Ripper
for the London International Festival of Surrealism
by Leandro Ramírez
(Surrealist Group of Río de la Plata)


Portrait of Jack the Ripper
for the London International Festival of Surrealism
by Merl
(Surrealist London Action Group)

MORE FROM THE FESTIVAL: FOUND POEMS

An extra bryant in the may
Went ginger in the beer time evian
On perfectly clear golden sprite
Virginia salad rizzla'ed smoking kills
Pure, still water of the Fentimans
Cutters choice the duty paid

Debbie Shaw

Square December
draws a portrait of midnight that
kills
Rizzla collects them from Jack the Ripper
by the antelopes of the
Silver Spring
Salad makes a froissage drawing with
matches and a giant
tuna
Perfectly clear tries to smooth it out again
but December
clogs
arteries take a blank piece of
upend before serving it to
fermented botanical ginger drink that
crumples it into
herbal extracts
found in the street by the alley
Molinari that is
smoothed out by a
handy box

Jill Fenton

heart strokes,
revolutionary reasons,
emotional mirror or
perfectly clear
highland wildlife

Merl

perfectly clear
still water
freshens my mouth on this summer
evening of joy

Nacho Diaz

MORE NEWS FROM THE FESTIVAL

The attempt to conjure Spring-Heeled Jack ...

... was successful.

A full report will appear in the album of the London International Festival of Surrealism, to be published and distributed later this year.