Horse Galloping on a Tomato

The title of the exhibition comes from a quote attributed to the “canonical” founder of Surrealism, André Breton, who claimed that “the man who cannot visualise a horse galloping on a tomato is an idiot.” One can only assume that Breton was pointing to the constrained imagination of the twentieth-century public, for whom absurdity, abstraction, and the illogical (the very pillars of Surrealism) felt radical, even disorienting, to say the least. 

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That said, today's society is by no means a stranger to the surreal. We live in a time where apples have, in fact, replaced human faces; where a sewing machine and an umbrella can meet on an operating table at the press of a big red button. Where even a child carries the power to summon entire realities with a device that fits into a back pocket. So how is it that Breton's quote still feels as relevant as ever? 

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Because we are facing a crisis of creativity. 

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