Outset UK supported the publication for the exhibition The Enigma of the Hour: 100 Years of Psychoanalytic Thought (Freud Museum, London) which marked the centenary of The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, and was co-curated by Simon Moretti, Dana Birksted-Breen and Goshka Macuga. The book was published by Koenig Books.
This exhibition presented archival material touching on the origins and life of The International Journal alongside contemporary artworks, bringing together themes central to both psychoanalysis and art: translation, transformation, temporality, the unconscious, metaphor and dreams. The artworks addressed these ideas, creating a conversation that reverberated throughout the evocative rooms of the Freud Museum London. The archival presentation explored the prehistory of the journal, the hidden role of women in its early years, its beginnings and connections with the Bloomsbury Group, and the influence of classical art and culture on Freud’s ideas and the visual identity of The International Journal.
This exhibition included new commissions by Simon Moretti and Goshka Macuga, alongside specially selected works by invited artists, Linder, Daniel Silver and Paloma Varga Weisz. Loans from the British Psychoanalytic Society, Tate and The Wellcome Trust including works by Duncan Grant, Barbara Ker-Seymer with John Banting and Rodrigo Moynihan, along with items from The Freud Museum Collection. The Museum itself is a key inspiration to the artists for the contemporary works and a backdrop to the archival presentation showcasing the developments over the 100 years since the Journal was founded by Ernest Jones under the direction of Sigmund Freud.
The Outset-supported publication includes an introduction to the exhibition by Dana Birksted-Breen, with newly commissioned essays by critic and novelist Marina Warner and by writer Michael Newman, professor of art writing at Goldsmiths, University of London.
Simon Moretti and Goshka Macuga have collaborated with an international research group composed of psychoanalysts from Germany, Austria, the USA, Israel, and the UK, invited and led by Dana Birksted- Breen. The exhibition was originally conceived by Dana Birksted Breen and has been curated by Simon Moretti with Goshka Macuga and Dana Birksted-Breen.
ON VIEW: 6th June - 4th August 2019
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