Making the invisible visible

Remedios Varo's enigmatic works are populated by alchemists, magical machines and figures on the threshold between man, beast and the cosmos.

Varo's paintings were created primarily in postwar Mexico City, where she was part of an artistic milieu around Leonora Carrington, Kati Horna and Benjamin Péret, among others. Here, the occult was not merely a motive, but a tool for exploring consciousness and imagining other ways of living and recognizing. The works draw on an extensive esoteric universe, from alchemy and the teachings of the mystic Gurdjieff to the studies of magic by the surrealist Kurt Seligmann.

Kasper Opstrup is a researcher and author specializing in the intersection of art, literature, occultism and politics as countercultural and underground phenomena. Taking Varo's universe as a starting point, in this lecture he examines surrealism as more than just an art historical style. Surrealism was also a state of consciousness and a method of making the invisible visible. Why is interest in magic and dreams returning with renewed vigor right now? And what can surrealism's attempt to connect inner and outer reality tell us about a time marked by crises, technological transformation and a quest for re-enchantment?