Imagine!

IMAGINE! focuses on the connections and similarities, but also the fracture lines between surrealism and symbolism, its precursor. From 1880 onwards, Brussels was an exceptional forum for the arts and the avant-garde, as demonstrated by the exhibitions of the circles "Les XX" and "La Libre Esthétique".

Symbolism, embodied in particular by Rops, Spilliaert, Khnopff, Delville and Minne, saw rapid development in Brussels and largely anticipated the emergence of the surrealist movement. A few decades later, Brussels became a centre for Belgian surrealism. Despite the cultural rupture caused by World War I, the older symbolists and the emerging youth were never fundamentally alienated from each other.