Loss of Control II Explores Hysteria and Surrealism at Musée Félicien Rops

From January 26 to May 5, 2013, the Musée Félicien Rops in Namur, Belgium, hosted "Loss of Control II," an exhibition delving into madness, hysteria, and artistic creation between surrealism and art brut. The show examined 20th-century documents and artworks, highlighting the influence of medical iconography on writers and artists. It featured both female and male hysterical bodies, contrasting with the gender-focused "Femmes névrosées" at Museum Dr. Guislain in Ghent. The exhibition referenced André Breton and Louis Aragon's 1928 celebration of hysteria's 50th anniversary in La Révolution Surréaliste, where they hailed it as "the greatest poetic discovery of the late 19th century." Photographs from the Salpêtrière were used, echoing Aby Warburg's Pathosformeln. Jean Dubuffet's art brut was presented as a continuation of the surrealist revolution, blurring the line between in and outsider artists. The exhibition emphasized the female body as both erotic magnet and site of loss of control, featuring couples like Nadja and Breton, Unica Zürn and Hans Bellmer, and Aloïse and Dubuffet. It questioned whether creative loss of control enables transgression or liberation from official art.