The Surreal House

With contributions from Surrealists such as Salvador Dali, Marcel Duchamp and Rene Magritte, The Surreal House looks at how the individual house is a place of foreboding, wonder and desire. The curators of this Barbican Art Gallery exhibition have worked with architects Carmody Groarke to transform the works of artists, architects and film makers including Alberto Giacometti, Many Ray and Max Ernst into a dwelling place that is both playful and deeply disquieting. "The idea is to radically alter the space so that you're not sure what's up, what's down or where it finishes," says Alona Pardo, an assistant curator at the Barbican. They had plenty of material to work with pieces like Salvador Dali's famous 'Dream of Venus' pavilion exhibited at the 1939 World's Fair in New York, providing an aquatic world full of mermaids, mannequins and a rubber cow udder. Works by more contemporary artists including Louise Bourgeois, Rebecca Horn and Edward Kienholz help to create a topsy turvy house in the rooms and corridors of the art gallery, alongside pieces designed for Yves Saint Laurent's apartment, exhibited here for the first time.