Laurent Doucet : Le mouvement égyptien n’était ni subordonné ni secondaire dans son développement par rapport à ce qui se passait à Paris
The following is a translation of a French article Laurent Doucet : Le mouvement égyptien n’était ni subordonné ni secondaire dans son développement par rapport à ce qui se passait à Paris
by Névine Lameï, Mercredi, 23 février 2022
(Photo : N vine Lame )
Laurent Doucet, writer, poet, director of the Maison André Breton and president of the cultural association La Rose Impossible, municipality of Saint-Cirq-Lapopie.
Al-Ahram Hebdo: How did the idea of an international exhibition on surrealism come about, to be held in Egypt, in collaboration with Maison André Breton, La Rose Impossible and contemporary surrealist groups around the world?
Laurent Doucet: La Maison André Breton and La Rose Impossible have been contacted for co-organization work, by the new Egyptian surrealist group from the Middle East and North Africa, founded in 2019 by Mohsen ElBelasy (general director of the International Exhibition of Surrealism in Egypt). Over the past two years, surrealist activities in the Middle East and North Africa have returned, connected to many surrealist groups around the world. Hence, today, the international exhibition of surrealism in Egypt, which was born of collective work and which is considered the second of its kind in the history of the country.
Surrealism witnessed, in the 1930s and 1940s, exceptional cultural relations between Egypt and France. At that time, Egyptian surrealism was neither subordinate nor secondary in its development to what was happening in Paris, but original, innovative and creative, with its founder Georges Henein (1914-1973) and the Art et Liberté group.
In the words of the initiator and animator of surrealism, the poet André Breton, addressed to Georges Henein: “If the storm had two wings, one would be here and the other in Egypt”. Today, in Egypt, surrealism amazes us again with its strangeness, its social networks and its multiple communicative tools at the local and global levels.
— Can you tell us about the link between the Maison André Breton and the association La Rose Impossible, which participate in the organization of this international event?
— In 1951, André Breton acquired the house where he would stay until his death in 1966. Today, it has been acquired by the municipality of Saint-Cirq-Lapopie under the impetus of the association La Rose Impossible. The latter, founded in 2014, is in charge of the cultural management of the place, which has become a very active international center of surrealism and citizens of the world.
— What is the message that such an exhibition on surrealism can convey to us today?
— Born of the worst wars and colonizations, surrealism wants to be a movement of revolt. A humanist movement for emancipation without borders. Its goal is to counterbalance the violence of human societies and economic systems, for more pacifism, more equality, more freedom and more creativity. Today, the International Exhibition of Surrealism has come to prolong Egyptian surrealism and give an insight into the current state of this great international movement in the contemporary world.