by Tamara Moscowitz

What is a home? Enter the surrealists in the 1920s who turned the bourgeois ideals of cozy, comfort, safe, upside down to revel in the underbelly of domestic bliss by creating surreal habitats that probe, rebel, and ultimately surprise.

Erotic and inviting, Marcel Duchamp’s Prére de Toucher (Please Touch) with its form on velvet (on the right) serves as the entrance’s doorbell.

“The Surreal House” at The Barbican Art Gallery in London is an exhibition that explores the power and mystery of the house on the collective imagination and its significance on architecture. Intensifying the visitor’s experience is an ambitious installation design to imitate a surreal house by the highly lauded London architectural firm of Carmody Groarke.

“The Surreal House” is a blend of art (Marcel Duchamp), photography (Hans Bellmer), architecture (Rem Koolhaas), film (Maya Deren), and examines the unique relationship between the interior and shell (Nicolas de Larmessin), and object and space (Francesca Woodman). In each, there is an obvious struggle, a profound effort to liberate their imagination. As they journey through the mind of the house, the visitor is given a range of perspectives – a cabinet of curiosities, a ruined castle, a cage, cave, box, labyrinth, bell jar, a mother’s womb, with interiors that resemble a mad house.

Over 150 works many of which reveal the influence surrealism has had on contemporary artists presenting a sprawling and diverse range of paintings, photographs, films, and installation from private and public collections. Iconic works by Salvatore Dali, Man Ray, René Magritte, Giorgio de Chirico, and Max Ernst stand along side Buster Keaton, Louise Bourgeois, Jean Cocteau, Diller & Scofidio, and Robert Longo, among others.

One of the edgier design magazines, Wallpaper’s October 2010 issue will feature its fall fashion shoot against the backdrop of the exhibition. The Barbican Art Gallery is offering extensive programming, including screenings of Tim Burton’s critically acclaimed “Alice In Wonderland” and Terry Gilliam’s 1985 masterpiece “Brazil.” Through 10 September 2010. http://www.barbican.org.uk/101

OMA/Office for Metropolitan Architecture

Ready for a swim? Rem Koolhaas acknowledged the debt to surrealism in his design concept. The dwelling with a rooftop swimming pool, teeters on giraffe-like legs, a contemporary reflection of Dali’s delirious dream painting “Sleep” also on exhibit.

Hans Bellmer

Playtime? German surrealist photographer Hans Bellmer is best known for pubescent female dolls produced in the 1930s. Labeled a “degenerate” by the Nazi regime, Bellmer emigrated to Paris in 1938 where he was warmly welcomed into Parisian art circles by André Breton a leading surrealist of his day.

A series of engravings entitled “Les Costumes Grotesques,” belonging to Nicolas de Larmessin, a French dynasty of engravers and bookseller, is considered forbearers to surrealism.

What are you thinking? In addition to the Barbican Art Gallery’s screening, checkout MoMA ‘s “Maya Deren Legacy: Woman & Experimental Film,” a nod to an American film visionary with a continuing projection of her films being shown through 4 October

Recognized after her death age 22 in 1981 as a genius, Woodman’s poignant bleak, blurring images of women were deeply affecting and psychologically disturbing.