PHotoESPAÑA 2024: Surrealist Centennial

For this year’s edition of PHotoESPAÑA, LOEWE FOUNDATION presents an exhibition showcasing the wide-reaching impact of Surrealism on photography and marking the centenary of André Breton’s Surrealist Manifesto published in 1924.


Curated by María Millán, the exhibition features photographs spanning the century by artists and collectives from around the world, spotlighting a phenomenon that enriched the forms, themes and aesthetics of photographic practice.


In a movement that looked to distort rational perceptions of the world, photography provided a tool for manipulating the representation of reality to thrilling or disturbing effect. Just as collage juxtaposed the real with the impossible, or automated drawing gave the unconscious mind free reign over creative output, various photographic techniques proved vital for Surrealism’s quest to release the hidden impulses of the mind.


When the French poet and theorist André Breton published his Surrealist Manifesto in 1924, he established a new artistic vision that tapped into the most electrifying dimensions of the human imagination. Against the backdrop of Freudian psychoanalysis and propelled by the radical energy of Dada, a generation of painters, sculptors, authors, photographers, filmmakers and philosophers began to embrace the creative possibilities of the human psyche.


Visit the exhibition at Leica Gallery Madrid from 6 June–14 September 2024. 

Leica Gallery Madrid

C/ Ortega y Gasset, 34

28006 Madrid

Open Monday–Friday 10:00–20:00; Saturday 10:00–14:00, 16:00–20:00

Free entry

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Our cultural activity never stands still, whether it’s an exhibition by the LOEWE FOUNDATION or an artist-inspired capsule collection.

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