Archive of Dreams: A Surrealist Impulse

"A hundred years ago, the Surrealists experimented with strategies of archiving as an avant-garde gesture. In 1924, they founded the Bureau of Surrealist Research in Paris in order to preserve and study dreams of all kinds and integrate them into creative processes. This Surrealist 'bureau-archive' operated with collected fantasies, desires, nightmares, and cravings. The publication 'Archive of Dreams' follows the same principle by exploring individual and collective dreams, ancient myths, and avant-garde visions. It is published in conjunction with the first exhibition from the collection of the Archiv der Avantgarden - Egidio Marzona (ADA) in the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (SKD). The archive's holdings from the twentieth century shed light on the working methods of the artistic avant-gardes and their global networks. In 'Archive of Dreams' the borders between visible reality and unconscious processes blur, as do the lines between the past, the present, and potential futures."--