Cantonal art museum in Lausanne shows one hundred years of surrealism
Published: Thursday, Apr 11th 2024, 17:20
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Plateforme 10 in Lausanne is dedicated to the 100th anniversary of Surrealism - as is the Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts (MCBA). The two museums Photo Elysée and mudac are also devoting themselves to this important movement of the 20th century.
The thematic exhibition "Surrealism. Le grand jeu" at the MCBA is showing around 60 artists from all areas, from painting to photography, collage, sculpture, video and poetry, until August 25.
The first part is dedicated to the historical figures of the movement, starting with Marcel Duchamp, who appears again and again in the exhibition, through to other "stars": André Breton, who wrote the first Surrealist manifesto in 1924, René Magritte, Max Ernst, Victor Brauner, Paul Eluard, Man Ray (who can also be seen in the Photo Elysée) and Salvador Dali.
This historical section will be viewed "from the perspective of play, which occupies a central place within surrealism", said Juri Steiner, director of the MCBA and co-curator of the exhibition, to the media on Thursday.
Chess and card games
The exhibition begins with a section dedicated to the game of chess, which was loved by many Surrealists, above all Marcel Duchamp. Card games, dice and other "cadavres exquis" are among the games that inspired the artists of this movement and which now run like a common thread through the exhibition at the MCBA. Incidentally, this is also where the title of the exhibition "Surrealism. Le Grand Jeu", named after a magazine from the 1920's. Other themes include occultism, esotericism and desire.
In the second part of the exhibition, one floor up, eight young contemporary artists have their say. Without falling into neo-surrealism, they question "the boundary between the visible and the invisible", seeking "new forms and new words to describe a world in crisis", said Pierre-Henri Foulon, also co-curator of the exhibition.
There are also "resonances" between the two floors of the exhibition, for example in relation to the figure of Elise Müller - also known as Hélène Smith - a Genevan medium and artist who inspired numerous representatives of surrealism in the last century. At the MCBA, the life and visions of Elise Müller are the focus of the works of two artists from French-speaking Switzerland, Maëlle Gross from Lausanne and Tristan Bartolini from Geneva.
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