FROM 18 SEP '26 UNTIL 29 AUG '27 | Wereldmuseum Rotterdam will open Live the Surreal (Leef Surrealisme) on 18 September, bringing together 90 works by 44 artists from Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Europe, Latin America and Oceania. The exhibition looks beyond Surrealism as a European art movement and explores how artists around the world have used dreams, myth, spirituality and imagination to challenge the realities around them.

Surrealism beyond Europe

Live the Surreal starts from the idea that Surrealism is more than an artistic movement. Instead, Wereldmuseum approaches it as an attitude: a refusal to accept reality as fixed, and a desire to imagine something different.

That approach takes the exhibition beyond the European avant-garde movement associated with 1920s Paris. Across different periods and places, artists have responded independently to war, colonialism, political repression and social change by creating alternative realities.

The exhibition moves from the Haitian Revolution and the Second World War to post-war Japan and Brazil, examining how artists have turned to dreams, mythology, spirituality and the unconscious when the world around them became difficult or oppressive.

“Surrealism is not a closed chapter in art history,” says Wouter Welling, curator of contemporary art at Wereldmuseum. “Everywhere in the world, and at different times, artists have asked the same fundamental question: is this really all there is? As soon as existing reality falls short, space emerges for resistance and imagination. Not as an escape, but as a way of making new possibilities visible.”

Art responds to conflict

The first part of the exhibition focuses on an outside world shaped by conflict, colonialism, revolution and political repression, and the images these circumstances produce.

Salvador Dalí depicts the seemingly endless horrors of war, while Heri Dono directs his work towards Indonesian political power. Tessa Mars and Pascale Monnin explore how the Haitian Revolution continues to resonate in the present.

The works suggest that imagination can be used to scrutinise reality rather than simply escape it. Violence and social pressure enter the artists’ inner worlds, where they are transformed into new images and ways of understanding what is happening around them.

From there, Live the Surreal gradually turns inwards, towards dreams, archetypes, rituals, memories and the collective unconscious.

Dreams and hidden worlds

Artists including Peter Birkhäuser, Xul Solar, Murni, Renée Stout and Trevor Nickolls draw on dreams, fantasy, memories and imagination as routes towards hidden knowledge and different ways of seeing.

Spirituality and the occult become increasingly prominent towards the end of the exhibition, with references ranging from Afro-Cuban religions and Vodou to West African traditions and Amazonian cosmologies.

The recurring idea is that the visible world does not have to be accepted as the only possible reality. Similar surrealist approaches have appeared in different cultures and at different times without necessarily belonging to the historical Surrealist movement.

The interactive installation Trionfi by Cypher Studio brings visitors directly into that process. Irrational associations and archetypal imagery are used to create a unique self-portrait and personal world for each participant.

Rotterdam artists join global names

The exhibition combines internationally recognised Surrealist figures such as Yves Tanguy, Hans Arp and Wifredo Lam with artists less commonly placed within traditional histories of Surrealism, including Julio Gálan, Tessa Mars, Renée Stout, Xul Solar and Sandra Vásquez de la Horra.

Rotterdam also has a strong presence. Works by artists including Arie van Geest, Olphaert den Otter, Ewoud van Rijn and Juul Kraijer connect our city’s artistic scene with the wider international story being presented at Wereldmuseum.

Rather than grouping the artists primarily by geography or historical movement, the exhibition connects them through a shared impulse to make the invisible, spiritual, mythical and unconscious part of the world we can see.

Works from Wereldmuseum’s own collection are presented alongside international loans, contemporary work by Rotterdam artists and pieces from collections including Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen.

Sleepwalkers takes a central role

Roberta Stoddart’s Sleepwalkers (2009–2017) is one of the central works in the exhibition. Wereldmuseum recently acquired the large painting for its collection.

The dreamlike group portrait appears harmonious at first, but reveals tensions and power relationships beneath the surface. It fits closely with the exhibition’s broader interest in questioning what appears to be real and imagining what may lie underneath.

Stoddart will also appear at Wereldmuseum Rotterdam for an artist talk on 24 September 2026 at 16:30, discussing Sleepwalkers and themes including awakening, identity, historical trauma and the search for an authentic self.

The exhibition also features work by Hans Arp, Dalia Al Kury, Silvia B., José Bedia, Peter Birkhäuser, Breyten Breytenbach, Winfred Dania, Maya Deren, Heri Dono, Édouard Duval-Carrié, Marie Louise Elshout, Otto Egberts, Arie van Geest, Julio Gálan, Wim de Haan, Wout van Heusden, Tja Ling Hu, Carl G. Jung, I Gusti Ayu Kadek Murniasih (Murni), Juul Kraijer, Wifredo Lam, Tessa Mars, Pascale Monnin, Eko Nugroho, Trevor Nickolls, Olphaert den Otter, Piet Ouborg, Mimi Parent, Gérard Quenum, Charly van Rest, Ewoud van Rijn, Santiago Rodríguez Olazábal, Eneida Sanches, Twins Seven Seven, Xul Solar, Austin Osman Spare, Renée Stout, Roberta Stoddart, Yves Tanguy, Sandra Vásquez de la Horra, Edin Velez, Co Westerik and Santiago Yahuarcani.

Museum design becomes part of the show

The exhibition itself gradually moves away from the familiar museum white cube. Its design becomes freer as you progress through the galleries, encouraging you to reconsider how you normally look at art in a museum.

In the final space, walls, floor and ceiling are rearranged to create a kaleidoscopic experience. The changing surroundings make the act of looking part of the exhibition’s exploration of alternative realities.

Live the Surreal ultimately presents Surrealism as something that continues to appear whenever artists reject the idea that the world they see around them is the only world possible.

With war, climate crises and social polarisation forming part of the contemporary backdrop, the exhibition connects that approach with the present rather than treating Surrealism purely as a historical avant-garde movement.

Visiting Live the Surreal

Live the Surreal (Leef Surrealisme) opens at Wereldmuseum Rotterdam on 18 September 2026 and is currently scheduled to run until 29 August 2027.

Wereldmuseum Rotterdam is located in the Scheepvaartkwartier at Willemskade 25, 3016 DM Rotterdam, close to the Erasmus Bridge and Veerhaven. From Rotterdam Centraal you can take tram 8 to Vasteland and walk towards the Maas, while Leuvehaven metro station is another nearby option.