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Rael Artel Gallery, Tartu
Vaal Gallery, Tallinn
2006
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Installation "Gourmet a la Freud" by Tanja Muravskaja
Tanja Muravskaja uses the basement on 3/5 Kompanii Street with an approach logic of psychoanalysis: according to Freud, unconscious is like a basement where all the traumas that consciousness has fended off, all the unacceptable desires and the knots of psyche have settled.
Stepping into the space with a vaulted ceiling painted green, where Tanja is showing her photo installation "Gourmet a la Freud", the viewer finds her/himself in somebody else's unconscious. Among the forgotten things there are two very erotic-looking alluring objects - two oysters. The ambiguous substance in showcases beams out into the dim room predictable forepleasures. The oysters have been ripped out of their shells and placed into nooks in the surface of the wall, which in turn forms psychoanalytical associations. The desirable facture of "Gourmet a la Freud", absorbing into the room along with light, is reminiscent of photos with savory foods in restaurants. These always look more delicious and better on photos in showcases than on plates on the table. It is this kind of picture - that creates illusions and desire - that is worthy of placing into a showcase.
"Gourmet a la Freud" deals with opening up a space for art, with an image of taking its virginity. A fancy gourmet pleasure presumes the barbarism of the oyster knife while the opening of a new space for art presumes the brutal invasion of artworks and the demolishing of the space's former essence. The oyster that comes off as highly sexual and the intellectually enjoyable art are the very things to desire desperately:
Rael Artel
The Library project. The Artist's Dialogue with Space, Rael Artel Gallery, Tartu, Estonia. March-April 2006.
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