Surrealism – Centre Pompidou, France

Designed like a maze, the “Surrealism” exhibition is an unprecedented dive into the exceptional creative effervescence of the Surrealist movement, born in 1924 with the publication of André Breton’s founding Manifesto.

Combining paintings, drawings, films, photographs and literary documents, the exhibition presents works by the movement’s iconic artists (Salvador Dalí, René Magritte, Giorgio de Chirico, Max Ernst, Joan Miró), as well as those by the female Surrealists (including Leonora Carrington, Ithell Colquhoun, Dora Maar).

The exhibition is organised both chronologically and thematically, structured into 14 sections that evoke the literary figures who inspired the movement (Lautréamont, Lewis Carroll, Sade, etc.) and the poetic principles that structure its imagery (the artist as a medium, dreams, the philosopher’s stone, the forest, etc.).

At the heart of the exhibition is a central “drum” housing the original manuscript of the Manifesto, an exceptional loan from the National Library of France. A multimedia screening accompanies the discovery of this unique document, providing insight into its creation and meaning.