Wereldmuseum Rotterdam Presents 'Leef Surrealisme' with Pascale Monnin and Xul Solar

In 'Leef Surrealisme' at Wereldmuseum Rotterdam, Pascale Monnin's La dette (2023) anchors a show that explores surrealism across three thematic realms. Monnin's installation features a glittering female head rotating slowly on its axis, a heavy chain on the floor, and a child's head covered in coins, addressing the debt France imposed on Haiti after the 1804 independence struggle. Voodoo dolls, tarot cards, and dreamlike paintings guide visitors through contrasting atmospheres: one room offers celestial moods with draped fabrics and soft pastels, while another confronts dark nightmares. The section 'De buitenwereld' brings colonialism and war into the exhibition; Xul Solar's Rua ruini (1949) shows a figure wandering lost among ruins of twentieth-century ideologies. 'De binnenwereld' emphasizes visions and the subconscious, with dark shadows and frightening figures in paintings by Roberta Stoddart (1963) and Marie Louise Elshout (1967), and Co Westerik's Semi-closed Eyelid (2018) depicting the threshold between waking and sleeping. 'Andere werelden' introduces levity: Alice in Wonderland peers through a small window in a summer landscape, and Eneida Sanches's etchings with cow eyes seem to dance. Yet unheimlichkeit prevails; after the visit, the line between imagination and reality is barely discernible. The exhibition includes works by Yves Tanguy, such as Le Tabernacle (1928).