Letter from Portugal

Dear surrealist friend,

As a Surrealist and partisan of freedom, poetry and love, I declare having nothing whatsoever to do with the so-called "big surrealist event" exhibition organized in Coimbra in the incoming month of 2010 by a certain Santiago Ribeiro whose name you may have seen as a participant in the Surrealist Exhibition that I organized in 2008, in the same city, under the title: O REVERSO DO OLHAR . His participation in my exhibition was an imposture: Mr Santiago Ribeiro is a clever but ignorant fraud who has never heard of the existence of André Breton's Surrealist Manifestos and thinks that Surrealism is just a fashionable "ism" with which he can earn some money. The "Gallery" in which he organizes his "event" will take place at the Bissaya Barreto Foundation, named after the fascist doctor of Salazar and none of the advertized artists "discovered" by Santiago Ribeiro, who use the “surrealist” label, have anything to do with the Internacional Surrealist Movement. The latest international surrealistic exhibition just took place at the Salvador Allende Museum (Santiago de Chile) organized by the surrealist group Derrame, last November-December 2009.



Miguel de Carvalho

editor of DEBOUT SUR L’OEUF - surrealist editions
Coimbra, Portugal





Caro amigo(a) surrealista,



Na partilha da tríade da liberdade, da poesia e do amor, declaro nada ter haver com uma tal exposição classificada de “grande evento surrealista” e organizada em Coimbra (nos próximos meses de 2010) por um tal de Santiago Ribeiro, cujo nome não lhe é estranho como participante na exposição de surrealismo actual que organzei em 2008, na mesma cidade, sob o título O REVERSO DO OLHAR. A sua participação foi uma fraude: o Sr. Santiago Ribeiro habilidoso quanto baste e um total ignorante que nunca tomou contacto com a monumental obra de André Breton, incluindo os seus Manifestos do Surrealismo, utiliza o Surrealismo como uma moda, uma estética e um “ismo” com o qual poderá ter retorno económico. Um dos locais que seleccionou para o seu “evento” é a Fundação Bissaya Barreto, personalidade sobejamente conhecida como médico e benemérito do período fascista português, mas nenhum dos artistas participantes “descobertos” pelo Sr. Santiago Ribeiro, que usam o rótulo “surrealista”, têm algo haver com o Movimento Surrealista Internacional. A última exposição surrealista internacional teve lugar no Museu Salvador Allende (importante lutador anti-fascista) em Santiago do Chile organizada pelo grupo surrealista Derrame, nos passados meses Novembro-Dezembro de 2009.



Disse,


Miguel de Carvalho

editor de DEBOUT SUR L’OEUF - edições surrealistas
Coimbra, Portugal

The Reality Binge Trick

Collection of poetry, short prose and automatic writing
by Merl Fluin.

Available as a free download, or to buy (not-for-profit – cost price only),
from Head Louse Press.

The Woman and the Machine

A new film by Miguel Angel Almagro

Click here to watch the trailer.

Tin Man Appointed to Head Costa Jury

At a packed press conference last night it was announced that the Tin Man had accepted an invitation to chair the jury for next year's Costa Book Awards.

A beaming Tin Man said, "I am thrilled to have been given this opportunity to reflect the nation's literary tastes and to represent the views of tin-eared poetry lovers everywhere."

Asked if he had any tips on next year's winner, he replied, "Of course we are all hoping to discover a poem as good as Four Weddings and a Funeral, something that ranks alongside the greats like Yeats, Browning and Patience Strong. Truly great poetry moves us by starting each line with a capital letter, satisfying our prior expectations, and striking our emotions like a dinner gong.

"I used to think I was just a sociopath who didn't have a heart, but this year Christopher Reid has taught me that great poetry, like Ritalin, is a balm for the human condition."

In other Costa news: Naked South London engraver and angel-botherer barred from award contest "for obvious reasons", say judges.