Surrealism Beyond Borders exhibition, Tate Modern

Most people are familiar with at least some of the celebrities of surrealism – Salvador Dalí, Marcel Duchamp, André Breton, René Magritte – you know the line-up. But the movement stretched far beyond its roots in Paris and over the course of several decades became a global phenomenon. In February next year, Surrealism Beyond Borders at Tate Modern will explore the varied world of the uncanny, from Tokyo to Mexico City, Buenos Aires to Cairo.

In 2019, Tate Modern gave a nod to surrealism’s diversity with its Dorothea Tanning exhibition, demonstrating that artists were finding inspiration in the movement beyond the borders of Europe and that women, too, were embracing its possibilities. Tanning’s gothic take on the topsy-turvy world of the surrealist dreamscape proved that unbridled imagination and the world of the subconscious were fertile ground for a range of voices, while providing a way to explore distinctly personal experiences.

Surrealism Beyond Borders will include the work of another female firebrand, that of Leonora Carrington, whose novels and paintings poetically embraced the absurd with a good dollop of feminist zeal. This exhibition will also include the work of afro-surrealist Aimé Césaire, one of the founding fathers of a movement that is seeing a revival in the work of African American film makers and writers today.

This promises to be a fascinating exhibition that will celebrate the diverse, subversive voices of surrealism and the universal power of unlocking the creative subconscious.