At this very moment especially a younger generation of artists in Budapest rediscovers the power of diorama. The origins of the media, invented in the early 19th century as a public spectacle, can be described as the first kind of «virtual space» the world has ever experienced.
Besides its popular adaptations by museums of natural history since the 1930s, where taxidermic animals are presented behind glass within their naturally (crafted) environment, today various types of dioramas are frequently used in contemporary art as well: Jake and Dinos Chapman, Gregory Crewdson, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster or Hiroshi Sugimoto are not only a few of the most prominent artists that work with dioramas, these positions also show us, that today the term «diorama» is elastically used and combines related media such as the peep-ahow, panorama and architecture models.
The exhibition title «Is this Real?» refers to at least one very important, inherent quality of a diorama used for artistic expression: Limited to a certain space, size and moment, it enables the artist to present the viewer a entire, complex environment at one single glance. Whether in life size or as tiny models, the diorama as a media has a totalizing effect – a seductive quality for artist and viewers at the same time.
«Is this Real» now invites the viewer to experience and learn about the diorama by presenting four different kind of artistic adaptations. The audience will quickly notice that the power of these works go beyond mere formal qualities and visual effects, but also confront us with a serious examination of realities we are all facing today.