Audio Tour TOYEN

Welcome to the exhibition TOYEN, the first solo exhibition ever dedicated to TOYEN in Germany. Discover with us the most important and influential Czech artist of the 20th century through selected audio samples. Further audio examples You will find the entire audio tour on our in our Hamburger Kunsthalle App, which you can download onto your smartphone free of charge. In the Kunsthalle you can obtain such loan devices for 4 €. We hope you find it stimulating and fun!

TOYEN is unique among the strong women who worked at the heart of Surrealism. She worked here as a pioneer and is also the most important Czech artist of the 20th century. Marie Čermínová (1902-1980) chose her pseudonym, derived from the French "citoyen" (citizen), early on and, as a lifelong border crosser, not only challenged gender classifications.*  André Breton celebrated the surrealist TOYEN for her moving paintings and drawings, which she developed unflinchingly between the "magical capital of Europe" Prague and her exile in Paris. TOYEN's pictures, as poetic as they are provocative, oscillate between reality and imagination, the seductive and the abysmal, and make a deep impression on the memory. They are a discovery.

*TOYEN spoke and wrote of herself mostly in the female form, as shown by the many letters of TOYEN that are available to us. This is also confirmed by the companions with whom the curator is in contact. We have therefore decided to use the female form, which TOYEN herself predominantly used - despite the gender-neutral pseudonym.