FLEA MARKETS OF THE UNCONSCIOUS
Somewhere in Paris in the 1930s, André Breton is moving through a flea market at Saint-Ouen. He is looking for nothing in particular. He is looking for everything. He picks up an object - half mask, half spoon, impossible, functionless - and feels something shift in his chest. Not recognition exactly. Something older than recognition. He buys it. He does not know why. He will spend years finding out.
The surrealists understood that the unconscious has a market. That it traffics in strange objects, impossible meetings, images that should mean nothing and mean everything. That the most important finds are never the ones you went looking for.
Over four weeks we browse. We learn the methods the surrealists used to access that market - automatic writing, chance operations, the found image, the dream object - and we use them as serious instruments. We find out what our own unconscious has been stockpiling without our permission.
Come empty-handed.
Leave with something you did not know you needed.
WHO THIS COURSE IS FOR
Writers and artists who want to access material they cannot reach through deliberate making. Researchers whose practice has gone somewhere the available frameworks cannot follow. Anyone who has felt that the most interesting work arrives by routes they cannot entirely retrace. Anyone who suspects there is more in the unconscious than they are currently finding.
You do not need to identify as a surrealist. You need to be willing to follow something without knowing where it goes.
WHAT THE COURSE COVERS
WEEK ONE
What surrealism actually was and what it was trying to do. The unconscious as a research instrument. Why the surrealists were not making art - but conducting experiments.
WEEK TWO
Automatic writing in practice. What arrives when the censor steps aside. The method used seriously rather than as a party trick.
WEEK THREE
Chance, the found object, the impossible juxtaposition. Surrealism beyond writing — and what it opens for any serious creative practice.
WEEK FOUR
The surrealist legacy. Where these methods live now, in creative practice and research, and what they make possible.
DETAILS
Four weeks · Four sessions of ninety minutes · Online via Zoom · Facilitated rather than taught.
Places: limited to fifteen participants
Dates: Tuesdays - 3rd, 10th, 17th, 24th November 2026
Time: 7.30pm-9pm GMT
Price: £175
No prior knowledge of surrealism required. Open to writers, artists, researchers and the genuinely curious.
SIGN UP
Booking opens 1st September 2026
Places are limited to fifteen. To register your interest, complete the form below. You will be contacted when booking opens with full details and payment information.