Warsaw Exhibition Reframes Surrealism as Political Resistance
A landmark exhibition now open at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw argues that surrealism was never simply about dreams and the unconscious. "At the Heart of Change: Surrealism and Anti-Fascism" positions the movement as a globally networked political force that fought fascism, opposed European colonialism, and used every available artistic medium to expose the contradictions of Western civilization.
The show runs until January 10 and brings together works by Pablo Picasso, Max Ernst, Joan Miró, René Magritte, Leonora Carrington, Dora Maar, Remedios Varo and Toyen, alongside less widely recognized figures including Kurt Seligmann, Wolfgang Paalen, Eileen Agar and Stanley William Hayter.
A Broader Lens on Surrealism's Geography
The exhibition is organized into 12 chapters arranged geographically rather than chronologically. It opens in Paris around 1930, moves through Prague in the 1930s and 1940s, and then traces surrealist activity across London, Cairo, Berlin, Marseille and New York. One chapter focuses on artists who fled Germany under Adolf Hitler; another, titled "Restless World," examines postwar Central and Eastern Europe.
A dedicated section covers artists active in former Czechoslovakia before, during and after World War II, among them Jindřich Heisler, Jindřich Štyrský and Mikuláš Medek. Polish-born artists who worked in Paris and later scattered across the world, including Franciszka and Stefan Themerson and Teresa Żarnower, also feature. A further section addresses the Algerian war of independence as a reference point for surrealist art in the 1960s.
Warsaw's Expanded Version
The show originated at Lenbachhaus in Munich, where it ran from October 2024 to March 2025 under the title "But Live Here? No Thanks. Surrealism + Anti-Fascism," as first reported by Polish Radio, citing PAP. For Warsaw, curators Dorota Jarecka and Magda Lipska expanded the project with research into Polish and East European surrealism, making it, according to Lipska, the first major exhibition in Poland to bring together works by such a broad range of surrealist artists.
The Museum of Art in Łódź is a co-organizer. Łódź curator Paweł Polit contributed a chapter on the a.r. group, a Polish avant-garde collective that assembled works from leading surrealists for the Łódź museum, founded in 1931.
The curators ground the exhibition in the surrealists' own stated ambitions. A 1935 declaration by surrealist founder André Breton, quoted in the exhibition materials, links Marx's call to "transform the world" with Rimbaud's call to "change life," presenting both as a single project. From the 1920s onward, surrealists organized against fascists, fought in the Spanish Civil War, joined wartime resistance movements and were branded "degenerate" by the Nazis, interned, persecuted or killed.
Why it Matters for Hosts
An exhibition of this scale and duration, running through January 10, is the kind of cultural anchor that motivates multi-night stays in Warsaw. Independent accommodation operators and boutique hotels near the Museum of Modern Art on the Vistula riverfront have a concrete reason to update their guest communications now: visitors traveling specifically for the show will want local recommendations for dining, transport to the museum and nearby cultural itineraries. Positioning your property as a base for the exhibition, with practical information about opening hours and the museum's location, can meaningfully differentiate your listing during the autumn and winter slow season.
Details were first reported by Polish Radio, citing PAP.
First reported by Warsaw Travel.