[CHILEAN SURREALISM] Exposicion surrealista: Braulio Arenas, Jorge Cáceres. Objetos, Collages, Dibujos [Surrealist exhibition: Braulio Arenas, Jorge Caceres. Objects, Collages, Drawings]

Santiago de Chile: self-published (printed by Herrera y Aldana), 1941. Octavo (19 × 13.5 cm). Original staple-stitched self-wrappers with reproduced collage by Braulio Arenas and a drawing by Cáceres reproduced on rear wrapper; [8] pp. Very good.

Sole printed edition of this catalog for the first exhibition of the Chilean Surrealist group "Mandragora". The "Mandragora" group was strongly influenced by the French surrealists. This relationship is also evident in the name. Mandrake (Mandragora) is a plant steeped in legend, not least in Chile. This is not only due to the hallucinogenic effect it is said to have. This nightshade plant is said to induce psychedelic states of intoxication with intense color and image perceptions, fantasy worlds between breathtaking beauty and infinite horror. In addition to this connotation typical of Surrealism, the mandragora plant was associated with numerous miracles in which the plant took on the form of the crucified or the Mother of God, for example. (Cf. Ulrich Pfisterer, Mandragora: Plants as Artists, Heidelberg 2024)

The catalog texts have the character of manifestos. Braulio Arenas, in particular, emphasizes the group's affinity with the French Surrealists. Among other things, he states: "This exhibition has certainly aroused the anger of a few old men who languish sadly in Paris in the shadow of the brightest minds of Surrealism and now proclaim the death of this movement in America, thereby only sealing their own death sentence by pretending to be the masters of a generation that despises and spits them out. In fact, names that are so dear to us, such as André Breton, Paul Eluard, Benjamin Péret, Max Érnst, etc., will not be so easily erased from our memory, as they stand for freedom of imagination and freedom of thought."

The combative text does not name the figure who, for Mandragora, represented everything they rejected. The fourth issue of the journal "Mandrágora", on the other hand, describes in detail an action by Arenas in which he interrupted a lecture by Pablo Neruda, demanded accountability for the donations Neruda had collected on behalf of Spanish exiles, and tore up Neruda's lecture manuscript in the process. However, the scandal announced in the two texts did not materialize. Instead, the exhibition held at the National Library during the Christmas season was praised. In a note in the daily newspaper "Las Últimas Noticias," it was reported that the exhibition had succeeded in "attracting the interest of a broad sector of the population and [...] gathering a remarkable number of visitors." Subsequently, the Mandragorists organized a "Soirée Surréaliste," published the periodical 'Leitmotiv' after the journal "Mandragora," and held smaller exhibitions until, in December 1948, they succeeded in organizing the most important international surrealist exhibition in Chile at the Galerie Dédalo. On display were small-format drawings by Hans Arp, René Magritte, Toyen, Wifredo Lam, Jacques Hérold, André Masson, Matta, Madelaine Novarina, Victor Brauner, André Breton, Arshile Gorky, Salvador Dalí, Óscar Domínguez, Leonora Carrington, and Yves Tanguy. It was the first major exhibition of modern art from the first half of the twentieth century which had been shown in Chile until then. (Cf. Cat. Papeles Surrealistas: Dibujos y pinturas del surrealismo en las Colecciones del MNBA, Santiago de Chile, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes 2013.)

As of January 2026, OCLC lists only two copies in North America.