Les métamorphoses de Guernica

Musée national Picasso-Paris

From April 8 to September 6, 2026, the Musée national Picasso-Paris will present an unprecedented virtual reality experience devoted to the masterpiece Guernica. Les métamorphoses de Guernica offers an unprecedented immersion at the heart of one of the major masterpieces of the 20th century. This virtual reality experience traces the history of Pablo Picasso's monumental painting, from its commission for the Exposition internationale de Paris in 1937 to its status as an icon, a symbol of peace. The experience invites the viewer to travel through a succession of defining moments and places: the Pavillon républicain espagnol, where the work was first revealed to the public; the ruins of the Basque town of Gernika after the bombing that inspired the painting; the Parisian studio on rue des Grands-Augustins, where the work was created; and finally the various journeys of the canvas, before its permanent installation at the museo Reina Sofía in Madrid. The narrative is carried by the voices of two privileged witnesses: that of the writer Juan Larrea, member of the Spanish Republican delegation, and that of Dora Maar, surrealist artist and companion of the artist, whose antifascist commitment was decisive in the creation of this political work and who documented its genesis through a series of photographs. At the crossroads of art history and sensory immersion, Les métamorphoses de Guernica offers a new way of understanding the history of this work of universal significance, in resonance with the collections of the Musée national Picasso-Paris, which allow visitors to grasp the full scope of his work and which preserve preliminary studies, archival documents and a body of works closely related to the creation of Guernica. « Le Musée national Picasso-Paris a souhaité compléter la visite de ses collections par un film en VR qui présente, Guernica (1937), œuvre majeure de Picasso. Ce tableau emblématique de son engagement contre le régime de Franco, incontournable tableau d'histoire du XXe siècle, marque une étape essentielle dans son parcours. Il était important de l'évoquer, grâce au recours de la technologie de la VR, au sein de la collection publique d'œuvres de Picasso la plus importante au monde. Cette expérience immersive permet d'appréhender, grâce aux archives et à l'écriture du réalisateur Nicolas Thépot (Lucid Realities) et le conseil scientifique du musée, le contexte historique, la genèse complexe et la réception très large de ce chef d'œuvre, conservé aujourd'hui au Museo Centro de Arte Reina Sofia à Madrid. », Cécile Debray, Présidente du Musée national Picasso-Paris. Presented in the auditorium space of the hôtel Salé, this immersive experience also echoes the rooms on the 3rd floor devoted to Picasso during the Second World War and to his works created at the end of the 1930s and during the Occupation.

Source: Paris Open Data ↗