L'Atelier d'Andre Breton - Mur Mondes

Composed of more than 300 pieces that make up an overview of the history of Surrealism, this ensemble reflects Andre Breton's ambition to collect and de-hierarchize the objects from his collection that attest to reclaimed elective sympathies. This work, published for the 100th anniversary of Surrealism in 2024, acknowledges the value of this exceptional world-object, a true museum within the museum. In 2003, a unique ensemble entered the National Museum of Modern Art: part of Andre Breton's collection exhibited on one of the walls of his studio at 42 rue Fontaine in Paris, where the poet and founder of Surrealism lived and conducted this decisive artistic and literary movement of the 20th century for more than forty years. The objects on the "Mur Breton" come from various cultures and geographical areas: Oceania, the Americas, European popular art and modern art (including remarkable works by Douanier Rousseau, Joan Miro, Pablo Picasso, Francis Picabia, Valentine Hugo or Jean Degottex). The "Mur Breton" was the subject of a famous photographic campaign in 1960 by Sabine Weiss. This work, published to coincide with the 100th anniversary of Surrealism in 2024, gives its full measure to this exceptional world-object, a true museum within the museum. Through international scientific contributions and the mobilization of expertise as numerous as the fields summoned by Andre Breton's collection, the challenge here is to study for the first time, in the form of a well-argued catalogue, the entirety of the objects which make up this Wall and the poet's office. A more speculative side finally aims to think about historical, anthropological and museum-related questions that are truly contemporary, while decisively contributing to this unprecedented aspect of Surrealism.