The artist talk focuses on the latest donation to the Sigmund Freud Museum’s art collection: Gradiva Revisited - the work of artist Tamara Horáková is as much a reference to current events as it is to the historical dimensions of the ancient figure. The relief of the gracefully striding Gradiva once adorned the wall above Freud's treatment couch from where it returned the patient's gaze.

With Gradiva Revisited, Horáková draws attention to a chance encounter between two photographs that are juxtaposed in the layout of the international New York Times on February 23, 2023. In her artistic study, the objet trouvé mutates into an impressive comparison between the photographic documentation of Ukrainian soldiers in the wintry Donbas and a striding mannequin that seems to pause in step in a similar way to its counterpart: the Gradiva, named after the “god of war marching out to battle” Mars Gradivus and for centuries a symbol of the artistic avant-garde as an ever-recurring, time-transcending enigma.

Artist Tamara Horáková, art theorist and curator Ruth Maurer and director of the Sigmund Freud Museum Monika Pessler discuss this homage to Berggasse 19.

An event as part of VIENNA ART WEEK

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