Madrid's surrealism exhibition stays open to keep culture alive

Spain: Surrealism exhibitions resist in Madrid

While many countries in Europe have kept museums and exhibitions closed because of covid-19, Spain is doing its best to make sure that people can still go to art galleries.

In Madrid, works by pioneers of Surrealism, including Salvador Dalì and Man Ray, are on exhibition at the Caixaforum, Madrid’s cultural center for the arts.   The aim of the show is to exemplify how the Surrealists (not least of all the Italians of famed avant- garde Studio 65) are still relevant today.

"Certainly, it's not a coat hanger, it looks like a cactus,” says Mateo Kries, curator of the exhibition,  “The typical and surreal thing is that there is an exasperation between the image of an object and its function: it looks like a cactus, but it has a function that you have to discover while you use it, in practice there is the element of surprise".

Among the 279 works on display there are the "Curved chest of drawers" by Japanese designer Shiro Kuramata and the "Horse-shaped lamp" created by the Swedish design duo Front.

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Also on display is the "Bicycle wheel", a 1913 work by Dadaist Marcel Duchamp.

For the organizers, it is important that people have access to art even in the middle of a pandemic.

"I know that there are countries that have closed museums, while shopping centers are open,” says Isabel Salgado, director of exhibitions for the Caixa Banking Foundation, “here at Caixaforum we are committed to culture, which forms our imagination”.

“So we are open, we maintain safety distances and all hygiene measures, and we have experts available to help make the visit more rewarding".

In order to ensure the safety of visitors, the Caixaforum has reduced the capacity and the number of visitors, offering specific time slots for entry: of course it is mandatory to wear a mask.