Today, we are increasingly addressing the phenomenon of the non-normative and its positions in art and society. Disability studies have also questioned the supposedly fundamental concept of disability. These new approaches are also increasingly being taken into account by specialist experts in the various cultural periods. The inquisitiveness and increasing thirst for knowledge in the early modern period also had an impact on how people were treated who did not seem to immediately correspond to the period's understanding of normativity. Both the culture at court, but also the way artists approached the subject, were affected by conceptions and interpretation approaches that were at home not only within the environs of curiosity cabinets and chambers of wonders.

In view of a special exhibition scheduled for the spring/summer of 2027, the project addresses the topic of "dwarfism" from a culture history perspective, and intends to focus on the general historic contexts, as well as highlight individual biographies.

The project is sponsored by the Ernst von Siemens Art Foundation.