Opening of the Archiv der Avantgarden—Egidio Marzona

On May 5, 2024, a new institution, the Archiv der Avantgarden—Egidio Marzona (ADA), will be moving into the Blockhaus, a historical building on the banks of the Elbe in Dresden that has been specially adapted to house it. Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (SKD) is warmly inviting visitors to celebrate the launch of the ADA. After six years of construction work, the house is opening its doors and welcoming exhibition-goers of all ages, researchers and the simply curious.

In 2016, Egidio Marzona donated some 1.5 million objects to the SKD. In this progressive, aesthetically bold building designed by the Spanish-German architectural practice Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos, that extensive collection is to be housed in a massive cube that floats freely above the exhibition level. This architecturally unique location creates a flexible space for research, exhibitions and discussion.

In its first exhibition, the Archiv der Avantgarden is being transformed into the Archive of Dreams. It is a space of dreams and uncanny visions that are archived, activated, rediscovered, examined, exhibited and performed. It is an archive and at the same time a Bureau, an exhibition, a place of participation and discourse. It is a labyrinth of visions, ideas, creative processes, and historical testimonies, where ancient myths unfold in avant-garde practices.

The Archive of Dreams is a place of exploration of Surrealist impulses. It highlights the work of the Surrealists as the first group of artists to develop archiving practices as an avant-garde gesture. One hundred years ago, in 1924, André Breton published the Manifesto of Surrealism and the Bureau des recherches surréalistes (Bureau of Surrealist Research) was founded to collect, archive, and study dream testimonies in all forms.

The exhibition presents avant-garde practices that blur the boundaries between reality and dream, passive archive and active revolutions, between past, present and possible futures. Over 300 works—objects, collages, drawings, books and magazines, photomontages and films—illustrate the methods of Surrealist groups around the world. Their themes merged with ethnology, anthropology, sociology, and political activism and also partly inspired other experimental avant-garde movements of the post-war period, such as Art Brut, Cobra, Pop Art, and Fluxus.

The study center, which can be reached via the sculptural spiral staircase, will provide a space for annually changing presentations. Here you will find a curated open access collection from Egidio Marzona’s extensive library, which is based on the theme of the special exhibitions. There are also workstations that can be reserved online for research work. Display cases built into the shelving systems showcase objects that present the spectrum of the collection. The platform also offers additional seating for reading and discussion groups, as well as educational and outreach programmes. 

Parallel to the opening of the ADA, a portal with interviews with contemporary witnesses will be launched online, entitled WIR SIND AVANTGARDE! the films, which have been recorded since 2020, document conversations with the collector Egidio Marzona and other contemporary witnesses about the practice and motivation of collecting as well as the background and history of the ADA - such as its vision, structure, development, historical context and provenances. WIR SIND AVANTGARDE!, the oral history project on the Archive of the Avant-Garde by Monika Branicka and Pirkko Rathgeber, will be present at the opening with a selection of films in the exhibition rooms and the study center, in some cases in direct connection with the exhibited objects. The website will be continuously expanded in the future to include further discussions and search functions. 

The ADA will be offering a first foretaste with free admission on May 4 from 4:30 to 9pm. During the opening weekend and the following week, the ADA will be celebrating with a programme that can be viewed on the ADA website.