Apollinaire and the “Surréaliste” invention

The exhibition at the Wunderkammer at GAM Torino celebrates the centennial since the death of Guillaume Apollinaire by documenting the events that lead to the birth of the surrealist movement. The exhibition revolves around the release of “Les Mamelles de Tirésias” in 1917 by Apollinaire, a text both tragic and grotesque which the author defined “surréaliste”, creating for the occasion this new adjective. The show features sketches from the theatrical adaptation, alongside letters and drawings which document the connections between the painters and writers in Apollinaire’s social circle. Also on display is a series of lithographs which the painter Giorgio De Chirico created to illustrate the visual poems “Calligrammes” composed by Apollinaire and to pay homage to the author.