Outset Estonia proudly supported Anu Vahtra's newly commissioned performance for the Estonian Pavilion Without Walls for Performa 17. Vahtra's project 'Open House Closing. A Walk' was based on the legacy of the legendary artist Gordon Matta-Clark and his group Anarchitecture, as well as on the current phenomenon of "post-gentrification". The performance was an artist-guided walk throughout SoHo. It activated vacant storefronts and spaces, each of which displayed a different scene in an overall narrative. With this walk, Anu Vahtra drew attention to the past and present of Soho, and the rapid gentrification of the neighbourhood.
New York Performa is an internationally acclaimed event dedicated to live performance across disciplines. Performa 17 was the seventh edition of the event and took place 1st–19th November 2017, at locations throughout New York.
A documentation of Anu Vahtra’s walk project was included in the exhibition 'Gordon Matta-Clark: Anarchitect. Anu Vahtra: Completion through removal' at Kumu Art Museum in Tallinn, between 22nd February – 8th June, 2019.
Anu Vahtra (b. 1982) lives and works in Tallinn, Estonia. Her artistic practice is characterized by working site-specifically with space and a sensitive visual language. She often relates to the spatial context or architectural setting that she exhibits in. Vahtra studied photography at the Estonian Academy of Arts and Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam. Together with graphic designer Indrek Sirkel she founded Lugemik, a bookstore and publishing initiative in Tallinn, in 2010.
