Troubling Circulation: Early Surrealism as a Case of Negative Transfer

Abstract

The article explores a particular case of negative transfer of the Surrealist artistic project during the early phase of the French-centred movement within the Romanian avant-garde magazines network. Dismissed as “inauthentic” or mediated for its scandalous allure, Surrealism is unsuccessful at making inroads into the Romanian avant-garde press, closely connected to International Constructivism. This process triggers a delayed, albeit impressive, response to the Surrealist aesthetic and political thought, toward the end of the 1920s, and is, initially, largely regarded as a fraught association. Arguing that artistic circulation and transmission is not always a synchronous or symmetrical process in a centre-periphery direction, the article opens an inquiry into the motivations and implications of the Romanian negative response to early Surrealism. Additionally, the article provides insights into the complex interplay between Constructivism and Surrealism in the space of the Romanian avant-garde periodicals, essential for the understanding of Central and Eastern European avant-gardes, and a new perspective on how the periphery moderates the Surrealist label and its artistic project.