Forget Dalí and Magritte. This sprawling survey captures the extraordinary scope of a global artistic explosion, from fantastical feminists to black power activists to Vodou painter priests
People eating their own underclothes, diabolical bicycle chains and wagging tongues - the films of Czech surrealist Jan Švankmajer are not just prankish delights, but scathing allegories of the abuse of power, argues Marina Warner.
Philip French: There are brilliant moments here and recurrent images of animals’ tongues and slices of meat running amok, writhing, copulating and being turned into mincemeat.
Surviving Jan Švankmajer’s latest surrealist nightmare, Matthew Tempest reports from the front line - military as well as cinematic - of the 2006 Rotterdam international film festival.
From French-speaking dogs to dungaree-wearing moles, the animators of the former Czechoslovakia found ingenious ways to attack the communist system. Peter Hames reports.
In the spring of 1972, the Czech military subjected a group of volunteers to experimental doses of LSD. Among them was Jan Švankmajer – then a struggling artist. Thirty years on, the award-winning animator explains how the nightmarish experience coloured his latest work.
Surrealism Beyond Borders review – A raging sea of glorious strangeness
4 out of 5 stars.