Among the more notorious aspects of Surrealism is the awkward attitude many of its original key protagonists (in France especially) cultivated towards women. As a result, few were willing and/or able to join their ranks – although some of the movement’s most brilliant practitioners were women. Several of these felt a need to be ambiguous about their gender – but none went as far as Marie Cermínová (1902-1980), who worked under the enigmatic name Toyen. To properly pay homage to this artiste extraordinaire, Jan Nemec went for an aesthetic of anything goes, mixing found footage, re-enactments, flights of fancy and dry data – scenes from Stalinist show trials clash with strangely waxen tableaux vivants; torrents of facts with paintings or drawings by Toyen or others, collaborators Jindrich Štyrský (1899-1942) and Jindrich Heisler (1914-1953), et cetera. The result, in Toyen’s words, is Splinters of Dreams / Silence and Darkness. Screens together with Shaving the Baroness and Two Women and a Man.
