A project by Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW) in collaboration with EXC 2020.

With contributions by Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich, Moses März (EXC 2020 Artist in Residence, December 2024), Emilie Moorhouse (EXC 2020 Artist in Residence, April 2025), Savanna Morgan, Fiston Mwanza Mujila (EXC 2020 Artist in Residence, August 2025), Ben Okri, Lisa Spalt, Yoko Tawada, and many more.

Surreal Continuum: Revisiting, Remapping, Reimagining Surrealism is a two-day festival programme that re-examines the movement on its centenary, reimagining and remapping it by celebrating its overlooked artists, interrelated movements and histories typically regarded as disconnected or rendered completely unseen.

'Jazz is my religion, and surrealism is my point of view', writes Ted Joans, capturing in just a few words the eclectic, transformative quality of Surrealism. Often mistaken for strangeness, Surrealism has been a profound medium for exploring and achieving liberation, rebellion, and the remaking of reality. Emerging in the period following the First World War, Surrealism sought to combat western rationalism by expressing the profundity of the mind through automatism, writing, poetry, and psychoanalysis. André Breton's 1924 Manifesto of Surrealism defined it as 'psychic automatism', describing a mode of thought unfettered by reason and morality. But despite its global resonance, Surrealism has often been narrowly framed as a male, European (primarily French) movement. 

The festival counters this narrow narrative by engaging with under-recognised contributors to Surrealist thought and practice across different geographies, such as Suzanne Césaire, Joyce Mansour, and Ted Joans, while also forging new connections to the works of contemporary practitioners.