The Stowaway, Marcel Mariën

The Stowaway, Marcel Mariën (Xavier Canonne)

The youngest member of Surrealism in Belgium of which he became one of the major figures from the time of his meeting with René Magritte in 1937, Marcel Mariën was, in turn,  a poet, collagist, publisher, ssemblagist, photographer and even film maker, his film L’Imitation du cinéma made in 1959 being censured and then banned. He was also a virulent polemicist and various lawsuits and attacks followed the publication of his works rejecting any concern for aestheticism, acting as a thought leader and extending the ideas of Magritte and Nougé.

Xavier Canonne is director of the Museum of Phography in Charleroi in Belgium. He is one of the specialists in Surrealism and was a close friend of Mariën and Belgian surrealists for many years.