The exhibition series "A View from Outside" in the former store of the Kornmehl butcher shop brings together psychoanalytic issues and contemporary art. It presents the Sigmund Freud-Museum¹s artistic activities in public space for the first time. The second project on view in this series is the installation "The Reticent Child,"2003, by the American artist Louise Bourgeois.

Louise Bourgeois, born in Paris in 1911 and living in New York since 1938, can be termed one of the most significant sculptors of the twentieth century. In her art Bourgeois deals with the human body, interpersonal relationships, fears, obsessions and the complex role of memory. Working through autobiographical elements and constellations is among the key processes involved in her creation of art. In the installation "The Reticent Child"for the Sigmund Freud-Museum, the artist deals with the theme of pregnancy and birth, a theme that has recurred repeatedly in her work throughout her career.

The Reticent Child
"There is a child who simply refused to be born. His birth was quite late. Was there something that he perceived that prevented him from wanting to leave the womb and go out into the world? How much of who he will be, his feelings and actions, will be predetermined by this refusal to appear? How will this child face the future? Will he be shy, reduced to silence, awkward or even hostile? He is the reticent child. Il était réticent. Mais je l'ai révélé."
Louise Bourgeois, 2003

Photos: Alexander Christoph Wulz