The Société Imaginaire has incorporated the Villa X in the year 2005 as a place for permanent exhibition and as a center for continuous research and development. It serves as the repository for the partial archive of the organization and as a museum for the works of the Société Imaginaire, one of its long standing members Michael Morgner, and the personal works of Batuz.
Situated in the center of Chemnitz in the state of Saxony, Germany, the Villa was
built in the early years of the twentieth century. Surrounded by much greenery and a planned sculpture garden, its immaculate presence is only a foreshadowing of the treasures that lay within. The villa consists of four floors, two of which are dedicated to the multifarious permanent exhibitions on display.
The first floor represents a collection of art work from Michael Morgner which illustrates his long standing cooperation with the many activities of the Société Imaginaire over the last fifteen years. The exhibition includes some of the works that he did in collaboration with the Société Imaginaire such as in the East German Portfolio, where he illustrates the text of former German president Richard von Weizsäcker and in the Milosz Portfolio where he illustrates the texts from Marcos Aguinis, Tomas Venclova, and Jan Josef Szczepanski. The collection contains many works throughout various periods of his long standing career, but more extensively his latest productions from the last decade. Another room off to the side holds some of his smaller sculptures while larger productions stand immaculately in the garden. This floor also contains an archive of many of his works, standing as a temporary repository for them.
Throughout the hallways of the villa do we see pictorially the relationship between Morgner and the Société Imaginaire by the posters headlining many of the exhibitions established through the organization in collaboration with the artist, and also such documentary images as photographs by the internationally renown Inge Morath.
The stairs leading you to the second floor is aligned by the very first reproductions of some of Batuz’ own works and the beginning stages of his theory on the interrelation of forms. Posters of his many exhibitions in many of the worlds most renown museums together with some of the very first original prints begin to familiarize the viewer with his work. There then on the second floor is the visitor greeted by some of his larger works in paper which fill the entire hallway.
The museum is located on the front half of this floor overlooking the sculpture garden below and constitutes three large rooms. Each is filled with different works from the artist, all from his latest developments. Most are from more renown series “Works in Paper”, while some works in pastel hang in accompaniment to these. In the midst of the largest room are a vast collection of the many portfolios created by the Société Imaginaire. Furthermore, as this villa is not only to represent the works of these two artists singularly, other works by such artists as Reuben Nakian and Raul Lozza are also displayed in order to visualize more extensively the Société Imaginaire and its method.