The Dalí Theatre-Museum in Figueres, Spain, is “the largest Surrealist object in the world.” I would add, it’s not a museum, not a theatre, but an immersion.
The Dali Theatre-Museum is a Surrealist experience for the visitor (Photo credit Jill Browne)
The TBEX travel blogger conference included the chance to sign up for a field trip to the Dalí Theatre-Museum, hosted by the Costa Brava Girona Tourism Board. On the same day, we did much more, including touring a winery and the vineyards of Empordalia, a farming co-op in Catalonia. More about that in a future post, but for now I will say it was a delicious treat to eat and drink local food and wine in the middle of the farming region where it’s all grown.
Back to Dalí. OK, I have been a visitor in a lot of museums and a volunteer in a few as well. I’ve got a diploma in the subject, which I mention only to suggest that I have seen some of the yardsticks by which museums can be measured.
The Dalí museum is partly a traditional art museum with paintings hanging on the walls. In any other art museum, those pieces would be the centre of attention, and certainly they deserve to be looked at and appreciated. But …
What I most want you to know about the Dalí museum is that it is also a giant art installation. At its core, you are inside the mind of the artist as it was, or may have been, for one brief, imaginary, surreal instant. You can look at Dalí’s work and be entertained and amused. You can walk through it, stand in it, and ponder the nature of consciousness. It’s your choice.
As you can tell I am struggling to get the experience into words. I don’t want to give a literal description of the art, though perhaps later I’ll try it, using pictures and drawing upon what experts have said about it. For now, I can only say that this museum presents the work of the artist in a unique and unforgettable way. Surreal.
I highly recommend it!
Dalí Theatre-Museum in Figueres, Catalonia, Spain
Disclosure
This is my standard form of disclosure that I am retroactively adding to all blog posts done before April 1, 2018, and will add to all new posts.
1. Is this experience open to the public?
Yes.
2. Who paid the cost of me doing this?
I did, indirectly. I went to a travel blogging conference in Girona. I paid for my own conference fee, and all my own transport and accommodations. Some of the meals were included in the conference registration, and there were some experiences included such as this wonderful day trip. The main sponsor of the conference (to whom I am still grateful) was Visit Costa Brava.
3. Did I get any compensation or special consideration for writing this blog post?
No.
4. Would I be as positive about this place if I had gone as a regular visitor?
Yes. I wrote about it because it was interesting and unique.
2 Comments
Frank Parker
October 5, 2012 at 2:49 pmIf I ever get the chance to visit Catalonia this will be a must see destination. I still remember vivdly the first time I saw a Dali painting over 50 years ago. I recently wrote a poem about it:
Keep the Giraffe Burning
In a barren landscape
You stand with neck aflame
Between pyramid-like hills
And weird skeletal figures
A premonition of wars
In which Europe entire
Would burn. Spain ignited
The flames and Dali saw
And early felt the heat
Of Fascism’s scorching fire.
But change the focus,
Look at those weird figures:
Flayed, deformed, propped
By crutches ‘neath phallic
Protrusions in their backs.
Our minds hold secrets
Freud once said like
Drawers hidden deep within.
These drawers are not hidden
But their contents are invisible
Two decades had passed
Since Dali’s giraffe first burned
And one since Europe’s fires
Were doused. I was callow
Seeing it for the first time
Confused by the torrent
Of emotions those images
Spawned in me. Wonder
Dread and awe shivered
Up and down my spine
Time has passed
Fifty years and more.
I still recall that twilit
Scene, the desert sky
And Dali’s other symbols
Melting clocks and bloated lips
Lobster phones and chests
Of drawers; and a book on
Surrealism aptly titled
Keep the Giraffe Burning.
jill
October 5, 2012 at 2:56 pmThank you for that poem, Frank. I hope you get to visit the museum. Clearly you would really understand and appreciate it.