6 September, 14:30 – Cinemateca Portuguesa – Museu do Cinema

Cinemateca Portuguesa – Museu do Cinema will host the launch of Cosmorama. The Forgotten Medium, edited by Victor Flores and Susana S. Martins, and published by the Early Visual Media Lab — CICANT and the Art History Institute, NOVA FCSH. This groundbreaking volume is the first book ever published on the subject of cosmoramas and draws from original research on Iberian and British cosmoramas developed within the research project CURIOSITAS – Peeping Before Virtual Reality (https://curiositas.ulusofona.pt/).

Published in separate Portuguese and English editions, Cosmorama. The Forgotten Medium explores the images, itinerant showmen, routes, and audiences of this long-overlooked visual medium that captivated 19th-century Europe.

The launch event on 6 September at 14:30 will include a presentation of the book, followed by a guided tour (registration required) of the companion exhibition, Cosmorama in Lisbon – Virtual Travelling in the 19th Century, on view at the Cinemateca until 10 September. The book will be introduced by Gabriele Koller, curator of the Panorama Museum in Altötting, Germany, and Vice President of the International Panorama Council.

Free and open to the public, the exhibition offers an immersive reconstruction of the cosmorama experience through historical recreations and a virtual reality installation. Visitors will have the rare opportunity to rediscover the sensory and cultural impact of this once-popular form of visual entertainment.The exhibition is organised by the Early Visual Media Lab of CICANT – Lusófona University, the Institute of Art History – NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST, and Cinemateca Portuguesa – Museu do Cinema, and is curated by Victor Flores, Susana S. Martins, and Ana David Mendes. The initiative is part of the CURIOSITAS research project (Peeping Before Virtual Reality: A Media Archaeology of Immersion Through VR and the Iberian Cosmoramas, 2022–2026), funded by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT).