The small scale of miniatures allows one to take in that which in normal circumstances would exceed one\u2019s visual capacities. Beyond such a utilitarian function, which makes models useful in such fields as architecture, cinema, and theatre, small-scale representations afford the possibility of a panoptic vision of things normally lying beyond the visual field. As a result, new perceptions of the world are sometimes engendered. When Jonathan Swift\u2019s Gulliver observes the customs of the Lilliputians from his \u201cgiant\u2019s\u201d vantage point, that society\u2019s shortcomings come into sharp focus. Although such microcosms, be they \u00adliterary miniatures or small-scale artworks, seem merely to contain wonderful kinds of worlds, a closer look reveals, in many cases, that they are in fact the stage on which particularly sombre situations are played out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This issue\u2019s thematic section is devoted to the analysis of a few cases of miniaturization in contemporary art. Be it due to chance or to the nature of current artistic preoccupations, the majority of projects covered are three-dimensional or photographic. Here, the works\u2019 delicate natures will no doubt initially catch one\u2019s fancy, and to the inattentive viewer they might remain bucolic landscapes, quaint genre scenes, or even pleasant utopias. However, in many instances a more attentive eye will discover hidden dystopias. In fact, the works at hand are a far cry from the world of fairy tales, as these miniatures reproduce very real situations. Ecological disaster, the excesses of industrialization, historical conflicts, or the undermining of modernist architecture\u2009\u2014\u2009such are some of the issues addressed by these works\u2009\u2014\u2009which openly sustain a form of social critique. Moreover, the essays\u2019 respective authors argue the case for the pertinence of the miniature in contemporary art from diverse vantage points. Thus, their potentially expansive readings of these minute constructions make use of such categories as the playful, the deceptive, and the simulacral; some texts also address the beholder\u2019s relation the intimate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the final analysis, to broach the question of works in miniature is to change one\u2019s relation to space. It may well be that miniature worlds have little impact on our understanding of them when we regard them from our human scale. A closer look is often insufficient. Since we cannot become tiny at will like Alice in Wonderland and enter into these small universes, we are compelled to make use of our imagination. We are thus required to constantly shift our attention to-and-fro: as giants we seize the work in totality; as Lilliputians we take part in the situations they present.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Translated from the French by Eduardo Ralickas]<\/p>\n