Surrealist Vacation Resort Cologne 2023 – Vacations in the Subconscious

Surrealist Summer Camp Los Angeles/Cologne

Surrealist Vacation Resort Cologne 2023

Vacations in the Subconscious –
Surrealist Vacation Resort Cologne 2023

is the 7th collaboration between Torrance Art Museum and Wilfried Agricola de Cologne since 2014, and the 1st one in an exchange between physical and virtual space.
The Surrealist Project – Vacations in the Subconscious – created and curated by Wilfried Agricola de Cologne 2023 for The New Museum of Networked Art and the collaboration with Torrance Art Museum – will be presented during the 7 weeks lasting “Summer Camp”/exhibition – 22 July – 9 September 2023 – entirely including about 200 art videos by 180 artists from 50 countries, whereby divided into two parts one part of The Surrealist Project will be presented at the physical Darkroom @ Torrance Art Museum, and the other part simultaneously at the virtual space of Alphabet Art Centre Cologne – both venues (Los Angeles/Cologne) will screen each week another curated video art program – in total 14 programs in this Transatlantic collaboration, whereby the virtual space of Alphabet Art Centre – functioning as a server hosting the project online – is not reduced to the location of Cologne, of course, but representing an extension of the physical exhibition, as well as any place in the world outside of Los Angeles providing Internet access. After the exhibition period, all video programs will be available streaming at the Darkroom at Alphabet Art Centre.

The exhibition focus at The New Museum for Networked Art during 2023 is dedicated to the 100th return of the launch of André Breton’s Manifesto of Surrealism, an art and literary movement initiated in 1924 taking fundamental influence on contemporary art and the perception of art, culture and daily life, in general.

The title of the exhibition project “Vacations in the Subconscious” is referring to the influence of Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis in the arts and philosophy of the 20th century explaining people’s behaviors/acting directed from the Subconscious.
Surrealism was one of several art expressions developing simultaneously in the beginning of 20th century at a historical turning point – facing the industrialization, the horrors of World War I and the desire of people one hundred years ago for a kind of counter movement which was not dominated/ directed by mind. 100 years later these days, there is a similar turning point – think of the global climate change, the digitalization, the uprising wars in many parts of the world, this not just the Russian War against Ukraine, generating again the need for counter realities – a more spiritual world.

The exhibition is not intending to initiate a kind of revival of Surrealism, it would be not necessary, because the Surrealist ideas propagating new kinds of freedom via imaginary worlds, became the genetic code of contemporary art and a variety of expressions in most different manifestations in art, culture, philosophy, literature, language and, commercially, in advertising, for instance, but – explore how contemporary artists of the 21st century working with a medium which did not exist yet during the classical Surrealist era (ending in the sixties of past century) – e.g. (digital) video art offering new ways of representing reality/diverse realities, are influenced by the ideas/ideology/utopias/spirit/ imagery of Surrealism and the visual and substantive clichés Surrealism was generating.

Exhibiting the Surrealist Project is the invitation to the visitor/viewer of art to dive deeply to the bottom of one’s soul via moving images and recognize the difference between videoart, cinema and video as an advertising medium, as well.
Digital video is representing quite a young medium starting only about 20 years ago, offering its user/creator fundamentally new possibilities using moving images for artistic purposes.

The simultaneous presentation of The Surrealist Project on different continents and realities does not only allow facing art in different realities but give the Surrealist ideas also a new stage of perception. Therefore, the chronological aspect became relevant in the exhibition concept – spotlighting the technological development and its manifestation in the content presentation during the past 20 years.

Vacations in the Subconscious would like to show a diversity of artistic concepts and the use of technology as a tool for transporting Surrealist ideas.
The art videos of the Surrealist Project are originating from different sources – the archives/video collections of The New Museum of Networked Art and additionally on the submissions of an open call in Internet addressed to artists all over the world – generating a common pool of about 2000 videos for the curatorial selection.
According to the curatorial concept, The Surrealist Project is consisting of a key exhibition, featuring a retrospective of the Surrealist video worlds of the three Spanish artists – Albert Merino, Laura/Sira Cabrera and Ausin Sainz – and 10 associated, so called (retrospective) root exhibitions, including the videos created by about 180 artists during the past 20 years – serving as a curatorial pool for their future exhibition in physical and virtual space.