Exhibition
The Traumatic Surreal
Henry Moore Institute, Leeds
Free Entry
Free Entry
Marking the centenary of surrealism, this exhibition brings together work made after 1960 through to the present day to explore the radical appropriation and development of surrealist sculptural traditions by post-war women artists in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Luxembourg.
Co-curated with Professor Patricia Allmer (University of Edinburgh) and based on her book The Traumatic Surreal, the exhibition will bring together works by Renate Bertlmann, Birgit Jürgenssen, Bady Minck, Meret Oppenheim, Pipilotti Rist, Ursula (Schultze-Bluhm) and Eva Wipf to explore their potent and multiple critiques of patriarchy.
In their national contexts, patriarchy is closely interwoven with and often represents a continuation of fascism and its historical traumas. Using a variety of surrealist devices and techniques such as found objects, collage and assemblage, their work demonstrates the potential of surrealism to negotiate the impacts and legacies of fascism and Nazism and their long influence over the historically shifting politics of womanhood.
These artists continue surrealist traditions, using the movement’s capacity to challenge conventions and systems of belief while redefining and reconfiguring surrealism in new directions. In a period where women’s rights are under threat across the world, and politics in many places is lurching to the right, an exploration of these powerful critiques of fascism and patriarchy seems especially timely.
Celebrating 100 years of Surrealism in West Yorkshire
Forbidden Territories: 100 Years of Surreal Landscapes
The Hepworth Wakefield
23 November 2024 – 27 April 2025
Forbidden Territories will mark 100 years of ‘surrealism’ since its origins in 1924 with the publication of the ‘Surrealist Manifesto’ by the poet and critic André Breton.
This exhibition will take you on a journey through the fantastical terrains of surrealism over 100 years, looking at how surreal ideas can turn landscape into a metaphor for the unconscious, fuse the bodily with the botanical, and provide means to express political anxieties, gender constraints and freedoms.
Find out more on hepworthwakefield.org
Getting here
Henry Moore Institute
74 The Headrow
Leeds
LS1 3AH
United Kingdom
T: 01132 467 467
E: institute@henry-moore.org