MAAT presents The Surrealist Castle of Mário Cesariny, an exhibition that celebrates the centenary of the most important figure of surrealism in Portugal, Mário Cesariny (1923-2006), and also marks the 100th anniversary of the publishing of the first surrealist manifesto by André Breton in 1924.

The Surrealist Castle of Mário Cesariny was inspired by a book that Mário Cesariny, working between Lisbon, Paris and London, dedicated to the life and work of Vieira da Silva and Árpád Szenes (1984). Cesariny himself took his title from Breton's manifesto, in reference to the imaginary place we inhabit with all those, past and present, whom we love and admire. In the same way, this exhibition sought to think of Cesariny's work in the broad context of the genealogy (authorial, temporal, geographical, disciplinary) that he claimed for himself (and for Surrealism).

We sought to commemorate his life and his poetic and plastic work in the context of the disparate times and works that he claimed as a source of inspiration, the works that coexisted with him, the artists he knew, those with whom he was companions or others who extended dialogues with his work, but also the portraits that were made of him, the cultures he admired, the lovers he met, and the objects he surrounded himself with.