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!