André Breton’s Manifesto of Surrealism was first published in 1924 . One hundred years on, the “Surrealism” exhibition at the Centre Pompidou pays tribute to the movement’s leading figures with an exceptional collection of almost 140,000 works (drawings, films, paintings, texts, photos) brought together in a multi-disciplinary exhibition.
“Surrealism” at the Centre Pompidou
On level 6 (Galerie 1) of the Centre Pompidou, the best-known works by the great names of the Surrealist movement are brought together in an enigmatic exhibition. Conceived as a labyrinth – inspired by Marcel Duchamp ‘s 1947 exhibition – it invites visitors to wander through a winding path designed to plunge them into the limbo of Surrealism and highlight the creative effervescence of a movement that could be classified as one of the most prolific.
The image is a pure creation of the mind.
Articulated like a spiral, the exhibition radiates around a “central drum” represented by André Breton‘s originalmanuscript , on loan for the occasion from the Bibliothèque nationale de France, and highlighted in an immersive audiovisual projection. The exhibition retraces 45 years of Art History, from 1924 to 1969.
Divided into 13 chapters, it evokes the literary figures that inspired the movement, such as Lewis Caroll , whose work Leonora Carrington is particularly familiar with, and the mythologies that structure her poetic imagination (the artist-medium, the dream, the philosopher’s stone, the forest…). An audacious exhibition in a new configuration!
