Wat was

Is a model a schematic representation of reality?
Anyone looking up the definition of the word “model” will find a long list of explanations of all kinds, sizes and meanings.
One phrase that often recurs is: “a model is a schematic or simplified representation of reality”. Which reality is not specified. Because reality also has many faces. Is a model a schematic representation of reality? Does the classical model, the nude, represent a simplified representation of reality? That would make life a lot clearer. Nothing could be further from the truth, because no two models are the same and the reality of models is a lot more complicated.
And indeed, in the world of artists and models, you find yourself in a labyrinth where the model is always something different. The idea of being able to create an exhibition in which the connection between the models and the artists is clearly visible is therefore an illusion. Forget that connection. The only certainty in this exhibition is that what you are looking at is a model, or at least derived from a model. A model made of wood, a written model, a conceptual model, a computer model, a mathematical model, a dream model, a light/shadow model, a moving model, a sound model, a 3D-printed model, a paper model, or a plastic model: anything is possible.
Of course, we could subject all these models to in-depth analysis and philosophical reflection. About the how and why, the function and meaning of a model, and so on. But we won't do that. We're happy to leave the digging, analysing and philosophising to the visitors to the exhibition.  There is plenty of material and models to think about, and there is more than enough to see.  
As exhibition makers, we are only too happy to apologise for the colourful nature of these assembled models. Whether you look at Frank Halmans' Kitchenette or Jip de Beer's New Manhattan, Mirjam Kuitenbrouwer's Flitserhuis II or Ruben Planting's words, Edwin Zwakman's fly-over II or Eline Kuipers' almost invisible works: they are all works by visual thinkers and creators. These are artists who, in a purposeful, intuitive, perfect or imperfect way, transform an image, dream or ideal into their own reality. And each has their own motivation for doing so. In that sense, a model is indeed a representation of reality. In this exhibition, these different realities go in all directions and the definition of a model is stretched to astronomical lengths. That is simply part of the freedom that the artist appropriates for himself.