Immerse yourself in the troubling universe of hyperrealism.

After the success of “Hyperrealism: Ceci n’est pas un corps” in Bilbao, Canberra, Rotterdam, Liège, Lyon and Brussels, an improved and partially unseen version of the touring exhibition will soon be coming to the Musée Maillol.

Hyperrealism as an artistic movement emerged in the United States in the 1960s and the corresponding artistic techniques have since been explored by many contemporary artists.

The exhibition presents a series of sculptures which challenge our understanding and perceptions of art. Reality, art or copy? Hyperrealistic artists turn their backs on abstraction and look instead to achieve a meticulously rendered representation of nature to the point where the spectator is sometimes left wondering whether they are in fact dealing with the living figure. These works therefore often evoke a feeling of strangeness or uncanny, but always carry meaning.

The title of the exhibition references René Magritte’s famous piece: “Ceci n’est pas une pipe” (“This is not a pipe”) which questions the relationship between art and reality. Some of the artists exhibited here aim to depict the human body as vividly and as faithfully as possible, whereas others question the notion of reality itself: new technologies, distorted traditional representations, deformation…

• The exhibition features over 40 sculptures by leading international artists including George Segal, Ron Mueck, Maurizio Cattelan, Berlinde de Bruyckere, Duane Hanson, Carole A. Feuerman, and John DeAndrea.
• An exhibition that represents a movement as a whole, which transports you to the boundaries of reality. 
• Some of the secrets behind the creation of the works are revealed by the artists themselves.

A co-production by Tempora and Institut für Kulturaustausch in close collaboration with the Musée Maillol.