Tulip Surreal: Magritte Edition, No.9
Maison & Objet, 2023 | Paris
Magritte Edition, No.9 is a tulip growing from the sky. It’s surreal and compelling.
It reinterprets the Surrealist's idea of questioning what we see or what we believe to see, which is exemplified in the Magritte’s work, The Treachery of Images. In our design, it’s a tulip, but it says, “Ceci n’est pas une tulipe.” It looks real and smells real, but it’s actually artificially made. It distorts the reality and incites curiosity.
Surrealism and Artificial Tulip
Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see.
Rene Magritte
Surrealism, an artistic movement that emerged in the early 20th century, seeks to transcend reality by exploring the unconscious mind and juxtaposing elements in unexpected ways to challenge conventional perceptions.
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Transformation of the Ordinary: Surrealism often involves taking familiar objects and altering them to create a sense of the uncanny. An artificial tulip with a scent transforms a common, natural object into something both familiar and unfamiliar. This mirrors the surrealist technique of modifying everyday items to provoke new thoughts and feelings.
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Blurring Boundaries: Surrealists sought to blur the lines between reality and imagination. An artificial tulip that emits a natural scent blurs the distinction between the artificial and the natural. This fusion creates a surreal experience, challenging the observer's expectations and perceptions.
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Dream-like Quality: Surrealism is heavily influenced by dreams and the unconscious. The artificial tulip with a scent evokes a dream-like quality, where artificiality and reality merge seamlessly. This could evoke the dream logic that surrealists like Salvador Dalí and René Magritte portrayed in their artworks.
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Symbolism and Provocation: Surrealist works often use symbolism to provoke deeper thought and elicit emotional responses. An artificial tulip with a scent could symbolize the interplay between nature and human innovation, the transient beauty of life, or the manipulation of reality. It can provoke questions about authenticity and the essence of experience, much like surrealist art aims to do.
The concept of an artificial tulip with a scent aligns with surrealist principles by transforming the ordinary, blurring boundaries, evoking a dream-like atmosphere, and using symbolism to challenge perceptions and provoke thought.