Don't Dilly Dali or Surrealist Arcade!

When we were in Figueres, I visited the most popular attraction, the Salvador Dali Museum. Figueres is the birthplace of Dali and where he bought an old theatre and turned it into a museum - about himself (not many people have the gumption to build their own museum, do they? And if they do, all the power to you if you can get lineups as long as the ones at this one).

The building itself is amazing. Figueres looks like any other small town until you turn a corner and all of sudden you are standing in front of a pink building with eggs on the roof.



The museum is 20-odd rooms and you're told at the beginning to go through the rooms in any order you want, treating the entire museum as a surrealist object.

Wandering from room to room there are many well known (and also lesser known) Dali works, and then a bathtub on the ceiling over here, a giant mural over there, artwork installed in the stairwells, stereoscopic images, red velvet walls, and work by other surrealists artists. A really surrealist mish-mash which I enjoyed.

A handful of the works have arcade-like coin slots. If you drop in a Euro the sculpture comes to life.

Like this one:



This sculpture is based on a dream Dali had about his wife. She was driving in a car and it was raining inside the car. Drop in a coin and it starts "raining" inside the car (where a mannequin of his wife Gala is). The passenger window of the car has an artfully smashed hole in it so you can view this. There are plants growing inside the car as well. At the top of the tower (higher than the photo shows) is an umbrella that starts opening and closing.

More art:




They also had a large collection of Dali jewellery (I had no idea he did jewellery) which includes a stunning bedazzled heart pin with a crown AND the pin is animated so that the heart is always “beating.”

Let me tell you…that piece was a real gem. Har-Har.

Love from Espana.

p.s. A special shout out to Nina-bean who is one today!