Myths and possibilities
Museum House of the Book presents the exhibition ‘Myths and possibilities. Beyond the limits of reality'. At a time when factchecking is under pressure, AI makes texts and fake news seems to be the new strategy of some politicians, the museum shows books and artworks that explore the boundaries of reality and create new worlds.
Sometimes these offer attractive alternatives to the world we live in. They sometimes claim a reality that never existed, such as travelogues confirming prejudices about distant places and invented chronicles of royal houses.
Thomas More (Utopia, 1516) and William Morris (News From Nowhere, 1890) write about ideal worlds. Pieter Bruegel (c. 1525-30 - 1569) depicts them in his prints. Artist Gerard van Lankveld (1947) works on his own utopia from his home, and Laure Prouvost (1978) also provides solutions for a better world through her work. Sometimes these worlds are grim and bleak, like the apocalyptic depictions in medieval manuscripts, in the work of Fiona Lutjenhuis (1991) and in War of the Worlds (1897) by H.G. Wells. Nostradamus (1503-1566) knows exactly what the future will look like, others fantasise about it. All these stories and works of art say something about the times in which they were made and the desires that are alive in society. In this sense, they also say something about today's world.