Setting Memory – Bettina von Zwehl & Paul Coldwell Special exhibition at the Sigmund Freud Museum, 7/10/2016 – 21/1/2017 Opening: 6 October 2016, 7pm

Works by London-based artists Bettina von Zwehl and Paul Coldwell kick off the discourse about “loss, memory and reorientation” at the Sigmund Freud Museum on 7 October, 2016 – notions that today define the atmosphere of the former living and working rooms of Sigmund and Anna Freud. The exhibition SETTING MEMORY at Vienna’s Berggasse corresponds with personal shows by the artists at the Freud Museum in London and thus underlines the close relationship of these two Freud institutions.

Bettina von Zwehl uses the quality of photography as a tool of memory and instrument of research, following the main principles of psychoanalytic treatment methods: criteria such as “observation”, “transference” and the “principle of confidentiality” are subjected to artistic scrutiny in a series of portraits. Photographs from a series documenting Anna Freud’s personal belongings in London afford insights into past life-worlds – visual reminiscences returned to their place of origin that depict the setting of the early history of pedagogy and child analysis in “Red Vienna” of the 1920s. The multi-part installation Sospiri (Sighs) stages experiences of loss and mourning: inspired by Gerhard Richter’s work, the artist combines personal traces of life and memory in an unembellished photographic memory record.

Paul Coldwell picks up from those historical events that left the house at Berggasse 19 a “vestigial memory space”. By reconstructing antiques that once populated Freud’s desk, Coldwell revives the memory of the ambience of Sigmund Freud’s workplace. Exhibits rendered in white and reduced in size provide a visual counterpart to the grand narrative of loss and absence. Like the suitcase used by the Freuds while fleeing into exile in London in 1938, the containers in which the reproductions were shipped to Vienna also testify to a sense of departure and new beginnings.

As Sigmund Freud linked the methods of psychoanalysis to those employed by archaeologists, who today often make use of X-rays, the artist uses this method to scan a Freud fetish (Freud’s coat) and uncover the underlying content of meaning.

Part of the exhibition SETTING MEMORY is the artistic documentation of Paul Coldwell’s Balloon Releases action that took place in cooperation with students from the “Business Academy Donaustadt” in Vienna in June this year and that was devoted to visualising loss of home and migration.

Newly released artist books by Bettina von Zwehl and Paul Coldwell afford specific insights into the latest series of both artists.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue.

Setting Memory – Bettina von Zwehl & Paul Coldwell is supported by

1 Setting Memory – Bettina von Zwehl & Paul Coldwell Special exhibition at the Sigmund Freud Museum, 7/10/2016 – 21/1/2017 Opening: 6 October 2016, 7pm

Bettina von Zwehl

* 1971 Munich, Germany; lives and works in London

1994 BA (Hons) Photography, London College of Printing 1997 MA Fine Art Photography, Royal College of Art, London

Solo exhibitions (selection) 2016 The Freud Museum, London 2015 Fotogaleriet, Oslo, Norway, Album 31 (collaboration with Sophy Rickett) – touring to The Library of Birmingham, UK 2014 Purdy Hicks Gallery, London Ruby’s Room and other works in Miniature, Barber Institute of fine Arts, Birmingham 2013 Ruby’s Room, Holburne Museum, Bath 2012 Made up Love Song, Cultural Centre, Poznan 2011 Purdy Hicks Gallery, London 2009 Profiles III, Victoria & Albert Museum of Childhood, London 2005 Photographers’ Gallery, London 2004 Lombard-Freid Fine Arts, New York 2002 Victoria Miro Gallery, The Project Space, London 2001 Galleria Laura Pecci, Milan 2000 An Anatomy of Control, Lombard-Freid Fine Arts, New York Galleria Laura Pecci, Milan

Group exhibitions (selection) 2016 Beauty and the Beast: The Animal in Photography, San Diego Museum of Photographic Art, USA 2015 Facing Histories, The Victoria and Albert Museum, London Face Value: Portraiture from the Arts Council Collection, Abbothall Art Gallery, UK 2013 3am: Wonder and Paranoia and the restless Night, The Bluecoat, Liverpool 2012 Seduced by Art: Photography Past and Present, The National Gallery, London – touring to Fundacio La Caixa, Madrid, Spain 2011 Another Face: Works from the Arts Council Collection, Hatton Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne 2010 Road to 2012, Setting Out, Commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery, London The Gathering, Building the Arts Council Collection 1973 – 2009, Longside Gallery, Yorkshire Sculpture Park 2009 Baby, Picturing the Ideal Human, National Media Museum, Bradford 2008 In Repose, The Galleries at Moore, Philadelphia El Cuerpo (con) sentido: una (re)presentación visual, Centro de Historia, Zaragosa

2 Paul Coldwell

* 1952 London

Professor in Fine Art, University of the Arts London

Einzelausstellungen (Auswahl) 2017 Temporarily Accessioned-Freud’s Coat Revisited, Freud Museum London, 22 Feb. – 7 May 2016 Small Journeys, Long & Ryle, London 2015 Material Things, Gallery II, University of Bradford 2014 Charms & other anxious objects, Freud Museum London Printed Matter, Art at Wharepuke, New Zealand 2013 A Layered Practice-Graphic Works 1993-2012, Studio 3 Gallery, -Canterbury; Stephen Lawrence Gallery, University of Greenwich Re-Imagining Scott, Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge 2008 I called while you were out, The House – Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge Graphic work, An-Dan-Te Gallery, Korea 2002 Case Studies, London Print Studio, London Queens Gallery, New Delhi, India Galerie 88, Calcutta 1999 By this I mean…, Arthouse, Dublin New Graphic Work, Graphic Studio Gallery, Dublin

Gruppenausstellungen (Auswahl) 2016 The unstable image, SASA Gallery, University of South Australia 2015 Statements, SNAP3, Rheine Split Bienniale, Croatia Scope, Cheng Art Gallery, Beijing International Printmaking, Changsha, China 2014 Impress-Printmaking expanded in contemporary Art Courtauld Gallery, London Current, AAU Cannery Galleries, San Francisco 3rd Graphic Triennial, Warsaw, Poland 2013 Catalyst: Contemporary Art and War, IWM North, Manchester The Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries, London in.print.out, Künstlerhaus, Vienna

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