Book Launch: "Surrealism and Ecology" organized by the Art History and Fine Arts Department & the AUP Library.

The book Surrealism and Ecology explores for the first time the significant role of Surrealist artists and writers within the history of critical thinking about nature and environment over the last hundred years. It approaches ecology both as a mode of thinking about the many interconnections of life and as a way of experiencing and knowing the world. The relationship of humans with their environment is of paramount significance within contemporary discourse, and the contribution of the historical avant-gardes to this topic remains largely underexplored. In addressing this gap, the book presents a diverse selection of analyses of the ways in which the Surrealists have thought about and represented nature and the human place within it, through poetry and literature, film, philosophy, exhibition design, and experimental practice. It emphasizes how Surrealism’s interventions in connecting seemingly distinct domains of thought and phenomena can be understood as relevant to more recent developments in the practice of ecological thought.

A digital version of the book is available at the AUP library.

The discussion will be led by the three editors of the book Anne Marie Butler (Kalamazoo College), Donna Roberts (University of Helsinki), and Iveta Slavkova (AUP). A few authors have already confirmed their presence.