THOMAS DEMAND

Name: Opening+Artist talk THOMAS DEMAND
Start: 2026-05-26T18:00
End: 2026-05-26T21:00
Location: MAK – Museum of Applied Arts

Rooms That Dream of the Past

For this exhibition, Berlin-based artist Thomas Demand fuses the visual power of theatre and opera with his artistic methods.

27.5.2026—24.1.2027

MAK Contemporary

Using historical scenographic models as inspiration—including backdrops from the Baroque to the turn of the century—Demand created a series of bespoke works for the MAK that transposes a selection of models from the archives of the Theatermuseum, Vienna, and the Nouveau Musée National de Monaco onto photographic media. His oeuvre is centered on the cultural practice of thinking in models and the way this imbues our experience of reality and our interrogation of the past with meaning.

Reggia d’Apollo in the style of Thomas Demand

Tannhäuser in the style of Thomas Demand

Flick & Flock V in the style of Thomas Demand

The photographs shown in the exhibition are the result of a deep dive into the maquettes of theatre history, which merge space and dramaturgy and beguile viewers to immerse themselves in the dreamworld of the stage in an almost abstract form. This original series will be accompanied by large-scale wall installations and light sources developed by the artist himself. Foreground and background interact; model and idyll, cultural history and present coalesce into an orchestration of a newly interpreted archive.

Curator: Bärbel Vischer, Curator, MAK Contemporary Art Collection

Opening and Artist Talk
Tue, 26.5.2026

6 pm
Artist talk
Thomas Demand with Curator Bärbel Vischer

7 pm
Opening of the exhibition
Lilli Hollein, General Director, MAK
Bärbel Vischer, Curator, MAK Contemporary Art Collection

At the same time as his MAK exhibition THOMAS DEMAND. Rooms That Dream of the Past, the artist curated the group exhibition Passants parmi les pierres at fjk3–Contemporary Art Space (29.5.–13.9.2026).