Je suis le reve / I am the dream
Dreams and Creativity: Psychoanalytic Perspectives

What is the place of the image in contemporary creative work?
How do artists make use of the images that arise in their dreams, daydreams and fantasies?

This conference wishes to propose and discuss the ways in which the creation of 'original' images is a matter of the encounter between the present and the past, an encounter between the images that present themselves in the daily life of the artist at work and the dream imagery of the unconscious. According to Walter Benjamin’s formula, pre-figured in Freud’s 'Creative writers and daydreaming', the artist is the one who acts on the images of his or her thoughts, that is to say that the artist finds the way towards a psychic and material remodelling by turning dream or fantasy images into images that are presentable and shareable.

The conference will also be interrogating what we call Excited Images (Images excitées) in contemporary society, images that captivate us because they carry a measure of excess which at times prevents the unfolding of dreams and fantasies. Their very overexposure and banalisation hides a meaning which may have become taboo and unthinkable.

For further information on this event from The Freud Museum click here and for tickets go to Eventbrite.