The Rhizomes of Surrealism

Opis wystawy

„There was no surrealism in Poland!” Challenging this long-repeated thesis that surrealism never took root in the country on the Vistula, the exhibition „Rhizomes of Surrealism” demonstrates that although surrealism did not function in Poland as an institutionalised movement with a top-down programme, its underground shoots burst forth with immense force in the face of historical traumas. The focal point of the exposition is the post-war period—a moment when surrealist poetics ceased to be merely an imported stylistic mannerism and became a profound existential necessity. While the roots of Western Dadaism and Surrealism relied upon the total destruction of the established order, the Polish avant-garde—following over a century of partitions—felt, above all, a vital need to rebuild. For this reason, domestic surrealism, from the pre-war explorations of Tytus Czyżewski, Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, or the Lviv-based artes group, operated under different rules. The exhibition „Rhizomes of Surrealism” proposes a view of this phenomenon through the lens of the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari—as an underground, decentralised rhizome (rhizome), which bypasses rational, hierarchical structures and erupts with unprecedented force during moments of the deepest historical crises. The focal point of the exposition is precisely this crisis-ridden post-war period. The works gathered in the exhibition perfectly illustrate this post-war revolution of matter and imagination. Jerzy Kujawski was the exception who established direct contact with Breton and later actively co-created the international, anti-dogmatic Phases movement—the exhibition features his pulsating, abstract canvases from the 1940s, 50s, and 60s. A significant place in this landscape belongs to Tadeusz Brzozowski, whose paintings, created in isolation—such as a small work in the artist's custom display case (1946–1953), Meluzynka (1979), or Zbytnik (1985–1987)—blend provocative poetry with forms that evoke a fear of the unknown. The „above-reality” of this period lies not so much in oneiric illusion as in the sensory materiality of textures. This resonates clearly in the exhibited works: The Rocket (1956) and Forming Structures (1957) by Jerzy Tchórzewski, alongside the intriguing and mysterious composition Inside the Mole (1967–1968) by Jerzy Skarżyński. The memory of organic trauma is also visible in the later assemblages of Antoni Zydroń, who wove bones, skin, and animal skulls into his objects. An essential pillar of the exhibition is formed by the independent art of female creators: Erna Rosenstein, Jadwiga Maziarska, Janina Kraupe-Świderska, Urszula Broll, and Maria Anto. They channelled the subconscious, gnosticism, meditation, and automatic writing as a protective and communicative technology, transforming their compositions into portals to autonomous psychic territories. The rhizome of surrealism, though constantly changing its hosts, is an eternally living entity. The exhibition culminates in a dialogue between the historical avant-garde and artists of the younger generation, for whom nightmares, the aesthetics of digital overstimulation, and bodily hybrids serve as a language of emancipation and a narrative of contemporary anxieties. The gouaches of Aleksandra Waliszewska, gaping with horror and the grotesque; the paintings of Jakub Julian Ziółkowski (Lucky Day, 2016), transporting viewers into altered states of consciousness; the ceramic objects of Olaf Brzeski; as well as the introspective and oneiric paintings of Lera Dubitskaya (Ticks in the Field, 2025) and Katarzyna Olma, or the interventions into antique sculptures executed by Paweł Sobczak, all prove that surrealism is not a closed chapter. It is a permanent state of rebellion of the imagination, ready to develop and bloom with every subsequent fracture in our rational reality.