Syria and the reception of surrealism: Suryāl 1947 Vs. Radio SūriāLī (SouriaLi) 2012

With its revolutionary principles in art, literature, politics and life as a whole, surrealism has also conquered the Arab world. The first country in which it bore fruit was Egypt, where in 1938 Jūrj Ḥunayn (Georges Henein), together with Ramsīs Yūnān, Anwar Kāmil, Kāmil al-Tilmisānī and others, gave birth to the surrealist group al-Fann waʾl-Ḥurriya (Art and Liberty). In the same period, surrealist ideas spread to Lebanon and Syria. In the latter country, in particular, a remarkable, highly educated intellectual, Ūrkhān Muyassar, studied the new revolutionary ideas and applied them to the Syrian context of his time. It was the period of the French mandate in Syria, when Arab nationalism was gaining strength. Muyassar belonged to a group of intellectuals who devoted themselves to the cause of independence and freedom. It is that same struggle for freedom that forms the basis for the contemporary uprising started in Syria in 2011 . One of the voices of this revolution is Radio SouriaLi, a station that is trying to confront the country’s surreal situation in a modern surrealistic guise. A comparison of these two voices, Muyassar and the radio station, with their totally different approach to what surrealism means, will show how they share a similar purpose, despite the time gap that separates them.