Research into Surrealism in the Middle East and North Africa is still in its infancy, despite an increased interest in the subject in the last couple of years, especially in Egypt’s Art and Freedom group. It is generally assumed that the artistic and cultural exchanges took place mainly between the “center” in Paris and the respective “peripheries”, and less so between the peripheries themselves. The workshop seeks to shed light on Surrealism as a political, social, literary and artistic phenomenon that migrated beyond Europe and was translated into different contexts. It focuses on international networks and translation processes between Paris, Beirut, Cairo, and other cities from North Africa to Iran. The question of how the circulation and reception of artistic and literary ideas and practices have affected the concepts of Surrealism and modernity is another point the workshop seeks to address.