Dream and Reality

Article written by Nicolás Martín Díaz and Carlos Mombiela Torres 1985 was one of the most memorable years for the Historical Museum of the City of Vienna. For more than six months, the Austrian institution hosted an ambitious exhibition that aimed to condense the city's complex history from 1870 to 1930. Under the name Dream and Reality , museum director Robert Waissenberger sought to create an exhibition whose basic principles included “a multidisciplinary approach and the use of a variety of media and scenographies designed to capture the atmosphere of the different periods as fully as possible”. To implement these wishes, Waissenberger turned to the Austrian architect Hans Hollein. 1985 fue uno de los años más memorables para el Museo Histórico de la Ciudad de Viena. Durante más de seis meses, la institución austríaca albergó una ambiciosa exposición con la voluntad de condensar la compleja historia de la ciudad desde 1870 hasta 1930. Bajo el nombre Dream and Reality , el director del museo Robert Waissenberger buscaba crear una exposición cuyos principios básicos incluyesen “un enfoque multidisciplinar y el uso de una variedad de medios y escenografías diseñados para captar la atmósfera de los diferentes periodos de la forma más completa posible”. Para llevar a cabo tales deseos, Waissenberger recurrió al arquitecto austríaco Hans Hollein. Located in the Künstlerhaus in Vienna, the exhibition focused on appealing to the general public, visitors with a wide range of backgrounds and interests. Similarly to MANtransFORMS , the exhibition focused on constructing an eloquent exhibition environment that communicated not only information, but also an atmosphere that conveyed the spirit of the times. As an exhibition tool, Hollein used full-scale models and mock-ups to communicate certain unique works of turn-of-the-century Vienna.