Giddy at the prospect of a promotion, Charles Singulier makes the whimsical decision to buy a bowler hat. It is a satisfying, if fanciful, purchase. But there’s a problem: this particular hat once belonged to the Surrealist painter René Magritte, and by donning it Charles has unwittingly stepped into the artist’s unbridled, off-kilter world. The choice is clear: uncover the secrets of Magritte’s life and work, or be doomed to wear the hat forever. Charles embarks on an exploration of Magritte’s imaginative landscape, examining the ideas and penetrating the mysteries of a paradoxical figure: a painter who doesn’t like to paint, an instinctive anarchist who lived a suburban, petty bourgeois existence, a lonely, melancholy soul never far from his friends and collaborators. In their graphic novel, Zabus and Campi paint a panoramic and revealing portrait of the great Surrealist, employing a playfulness and wit reminiscent of Magritte himself.

Moderated by Tim Lewis.