A Surrealist Universe Takes Shape in Warsaw

A Surrealist Universe Takes Shape in Warsaw
For decades, Salvador Dalí’s surreal visions have captivated audiences through his dreamlike paintings and mind-bending optical illusions. But beyond the melting clocks and elongated limbs, another facet of the artist’s genius remains lesser known: sculpture. Now, Warsaw’s Art Box Experience invites visitors to step into this dimension with Dalí Universe, an exhibition unveiling five of the master’s three-dimensional works for the first time in Poland.
Opened on January 24 and running through March 23, Dalí Universe is a special addition to the ongoing Dalí Cybernetics exhibition, which has already drawn more than 35,000 visitors. While Dalí Cybernetics explores the artist’s fascination with science and digital realms, Dalí Universe brings his artistic language into tangible form, allowing audiences to walk around—and almost step into—his surreal world.
Although Dalí is primarily known as a painter, his artistic ambitions extended far beyond the canvas. Like a true Renaissance visionary, he experimented with film, photography, holography, and even science, always pushing the boundaries of what art could be. Sculpture was another medium through which he explored his fascination with time, mythology, and the subconscious, transforming the motifs of his paintings into physical objects.
The works displayed at Art Box Experience come from the prestigious Dalí Universe collection, curated by Italian collector Beniamino Levi, who worked closely with Dalí in the 1960s and 1970s. Among the highlights is Profile of Time, a sculptural reimagining of the artist’s iconic soft clocks, which seem to defy gravity as they melt and stretch, embodying Dalí’s belief that time is fluid and subjective. Another striking piece, Michelin’s Slave, humorously juxtaposes Michelangelo’s classical aesthetics with modern industrialism, inserting a figure into a stack of rubber tires—a surreal commentary on consumerism and mechanization.
Other sculptures on display include Atavistic Ruins After the Rain, a hauntingly fluid form that evokes decay and transformation, and Lilith and the Double Victory of Samothrace, which merges mythology with classical iconography to reflect on femininity and power. Each piece is a portal into Dalí’s boundless imagination, where history, symbolism, and science collide in unexpected ways.
As an extension of Dalí Cybernetics, the Dalí Universe exhibition offers audiences a rare chance to experience the artist’s vision from multiple perspectives—both virtual and physical. The combination of cutting-edge digital projections and traditional sculpture underscores Dalí’s fascination with multidimensionality and perception, making this Warsaw exhibition a must-see for art lovers and surrealist enthusiasts alike.
To encourage younger audiences to explore Dalí’s world, Art Box Experience is offering free admission for children during the winter school holidays, from February 1 to 16. Visitors can access Dalí Universe as part of their ticket to Dalí Cybernetics, available through Ticketmaster.pl.
For those who thought they knew Dalí, this exhibition is a reminder: his world was never confined to the canvas. In Warsaw, it now extends into space, inviting us to walk through the surreal.
Art Box Experience
Żelazna 51/53, Fabryka Norblina