In summer 2017, Palais de Tokyo will be staging “Dioramas”, an exhibition that explores the diorama as an unexpected source of inspiration for contemporary art. At the crossroads of art, cinema and theater, this cross-disciplinary exhibition is the first large survey to recontextualize the diorama with a renewed approach to the history of spectactorship, including the influence of science and technology, popular culture, fun fairs and exhibitions.

Honoré de Balzac promoted the diorama as “the marvel of the century” ⁽¹⁾. Following the tradition of 17^th century magic lanterns, the invention of the diorama in the 19^th century played a crucial role in the history of visual culture and mass spectacle.

In its early days, the diorama invented by Louis Daguerre was a large semi-transparent canvas behind which natural or artifical lights would create atmospheric effects. Performing the illusion of motion and change, the duration of the diorama anticipated the invention of cinema. However, today, the diorama is better known as an entertaining pedagogical tool in museums of natural history. Recreating a three-dimensional scene frozen in time and space, the diorama is usually enclosed in a display case, composed of a painted backdrop, props and figures. The viewer is invited to believe in the authenticity of the artificial scenery as an early form of virtual reality. Although the etymology of diorama means “to see through”, the device also stands as a screen onto which a world of fantasy and fiction merges with the display of knowledge and science.

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Following the exhibition Le Bord des Mondes (“At the Edge of the Worlds”, 2015), Palais de Tokyo continues its exploration of art through various fields of knowledge and cross-disciplinary forms and practices. In the same way, Dioramas goes beyond the historical narrative of the diorama and its influence on major artists of the 20^th and 21^st centuries. Inviting the audience to step into the hidden mechanisms of a diorama, the exhibition dismantles its strategies of illusionism and allows the viewer to build a critical approach on the power of representation. Offering an outstanding selection of important works spanning several centuries, the exhibition also points at timely issues such as ecological awareness and the visual legacy of colonialism.

With: Marcelle Ackein, Carl Akeley, Sammy Baloji, Richard Baquié, Richard Barnes, Erich Böttcher, Jacques Bouisset, Cao Fei, Philippe Chancel, Joseph Cornell, Louis Daguerre, Giovanni D’Enrico, Caterina De Julianis, Mark Dion, Jean Paul Favand, Claude-André Férigoule, Joan Fontcuberta, Diane Fox, Emmanuel Frémiet, Ryan Gander, Isa Genzken, Arno Gisinger, Ignazio Lo Giudice, Robert Gober, Duane Hanson, Edward Hart, Patrick Jacobs, Arthur August Jansson, Anselm Kiefer, Fritz Laube, Pierre Leguillon, William Robinson Leigh, Charles Matton, Mathieu Mercier, Kent Monkman, Armand Morin, Lorenzo Mosca, Dulce Pinzón, Walter Potter, Georges Henri Rivière, G-M Salgé, Gerrit Schouten, Ronan-Jim Sévellec, Pierrick Sorin, Peter Spicer, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Fiona Tan, Jules Terrier, Tatiana Trouvé, Jeff Wall, Rowland Ward, Tom Wesselmann

Curators: Claire Garnier, Laurent Le Bon, Florence Ostende

 

This exhibition is organised in partnership with the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt.

Exhibition curator at Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt: Katharina Dohm

An exhibition catalogue in French is published by Flammarion in partnership with Palais de Tokyo.

⁽¹⁾ Honoré de Balzac, Letter to his sister Laure, 1822

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