Paris, 1924

The mist hung low over the cobblestones of Boulevard des Batignolles. Gas lamps hummed softly in the damp evening air. You can feel the chill of autumn seeping through your wool coat. Just around the corner lies Café Le Cyrano. You hurry inside, escaping the October cold. The creak of the café door gives way to a comforting murmur of voices. The clinking of glasses and the friendly smile of the barmaid make you feel at home. There, in the very back of the café, a man is writing with fervent focus — silent, like a priest in a confessional. André Breton — poet, psychiatrist, dreamer. The clock strikes twelve and he sets down his pen.

That evening, Breton wrote The Manifesto of Surrealism. It was born as a response to the horrors of the First World War and the suffocating constraints of rationalism. Artists and writers felt an irresistible need to break free from control, structure, and reason. They turned instead to dreams, chance and the subconscious — searching for a truer kind of reality.

Breton called this the super-reality — a world beyond what is visible, shaped by instinct, memory, and imagination. He defined Surrealism as:

“SURREALISM, n. Psychic automatism in its pure state, by which one proposes to express — verbally, by means of the written word, or in any other manner — the actual functioning of thought. Dictated by thought, in the absence of any control exercised by reason, exempt from any aesthetic or moral concern.”

Many would follow Breton into this dreamlike exploration of the mind. Lewis Carroll had already laid the foundation decades earlier with his playful logic and absurd wonderlands. Man Ray captured the invisible through his camera-less “rayographs,” transforming light into poetry. René Magritte painted worlds where the ordinary became strange and mysterious — ceci n’est pas une pipe. Salvador Dalí brought desire and delirium to the canvas, melting clocks and twisting symbols into visions of the subconscious. And Elsa Schiaparelli, the daring couturière, turned surrealism into fashion itself — designing gowns embroidered with lobsters and hats shaped like shoes.

Together, they revealed what lay beneath the surface of reason: a realm where dreams ruled and imagination reigned supreme.

Services provided by Senspherique:
Storytelling and guest immersion, art-inspired event design (including the creation of custom decor elements), interactive guest activity, vendor coordination and on-site direction and execution.