Mixed Realities. Virtual and Real Worlds in Art

"Virtual reality" (VR) and "augmented reality" (AR) have long since become established in industry, research, and teaching. But how do artists deal with these new worlds? What possibilities do these technologies offer in terms of expressive forms and subjects in a work of art? What, on the one hand, does the digital expansion of space signify for art? And, on the other hand, what does it mean for the viewer and thus for the perception of art?

As the first museum exhibition on the topic in the innovation and technology region Stuttgart, the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart presented six exemplary artistic positions that deal with both analogue and digital processes. Tim Berresheim, Spiros Hadjidjanos, Daniel Steegmann Mangrané, Mélodie Mousset, Regina Silveira, and The Swan Collective engage elements of the physical real and virtual worlds to an equal extent and link the two in their works.

The large special exhibition explored how the different expressive forms influence, correspond to, and extend one another. Here, the term "mixed realities" underscores the exhibition’s thesis that digital and analogue, virtual and real worlds do not exist parallel to one another or signify opposites but instead form a continuum and can supplement and/or even enrich each other––and in any event, are in a constant exchange.