Stage – Image – Model
Theatermuseum, 20 April 2017 – 12 February 2018

The collection of models in the Theatermuseum numbers almost 1,000 objects and is one of the most outstanding special collections of its kind. The models bring to light the secrets of theatrical transformation and take visitors to the historical epochs in which the dramas play out.
In the exhibition seven themed islands – from Antiquity, the Middle Ages, Renaissance, Baroque to Romantic, Revolution and Contemporary – represent distinctive examples of how historical epochs and scenes were perceived, imagined and designed by prevailing stage designers. The stage is magical, it creates the illusion of time and space. However, appearances can be deceiving: The different models suggest that our perception of the epochs is flexible – in its fiction, even contradictory.
The exhibition is curated by Ulrike Dembski and Rudi Risatti and designed by vana-architekten.
More stage models of the The Magic Space are presented as “satellites” in the interval foyers of the Wiener Staatsoper, Burgtheater, Theater an der Wien and in the collection of Greek and Roman Antiquities at the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna. The selected models were created for productions of these theatres and correspond with the collection of Greek and Roman Antiquities respectively.