„Claustrophobia. Side Effects“ by Anu Juurak

On Monday, the 16th of September at 5 p.m., the installation and graphic artist Anu Juurak will open her solo exhibition Claustrophobia. Side Effects at Vabaduse Gallery.

Anu Juurak:

“Claustrophobia (from Latin claustrum, ‘to close’, and Greek phóbos, ‘fear’) is the pathological fear of small confined rooms. This condition, which is usually classified as an anxiety disorder, can be provoked by various narrow spaces and situations, for example overcrowded elevators, rooms without windows and even clothes that are too tight.

The elevator continued its impossibly slow ascent. Or at least I imagined it was ascent. There was no telling for sure: it was so slow that all sense of direction simply vanished. It could have been going down for all I knew, or maybe it wasn't moving at all. But let's just assume it was going up. Merely a guess. Maybe I'd gone up twelve stories, then down three. Maybe I'd circled the globe. How would I know?*

Compared to the elevator in my Lasnamäe apartment building, which in evolutionary terms is barely a step beyond a bucket in a water well, this elevator was completely different. It’s incredible that they still shared the same name and function. These two lifts were pushing the boundaries.

First of all, consider the space. This elevator was so spacious it could have served as an office. Put in a desk, add a cabinet and a locker, throw in a kitchenette, and you'd still have room to spare. You might even squeeze in three camels and a mid-range palm tree while you were at it. Second, there was the cleanliness. Antiseptic as a brand-new coffin. The walls and ceiling were absolutely spotless polished stainless steel, the floor immaculately carpeted in a handsome moss-green. Third, it was dead silent. There wasn't a sound—literally not one sound—from the moment I stepped inside and the doors slid shut. Deep rivers run quiet.*

In my artistic practice so far I’ve mainly been interested in space in its various forms of expression as well as the abilities of people to perceive and understand space. This exhibition is also centered on existential themes, situated at the junction of architecture and the visual arts, and composed of installations regarding the manipulation of space. As an artist I’m looking for various points of departure from my earlier work, taking stock in the form of space.”
 

* Taken from Haruki Murakami’s Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (1985).
 

Anu Juurak (b. 1957) is an artist practicing in the fields of graphic, video, installation and interdisciplinary arts. She graduated from the State Art Institute of the Estonian SSR (now Estonian Academy of Arts) in 1985, where she studied printmaking. In her graphic art practice she has worked with etching and screen printing. Juurak has taken part in exhibitions with large format coloured graphic art, participated in poster exhibitions and completed multimedia projects in collaboration with performance artists and choreographers. Since 1996 she has mostly exhibited video and spatial installations, experimented with various environments and made collaborative works with technical experts and programmers from different fields. Among other themes, from the 1990s onward, she has worked with the depiction of the undefined and unknown as well as the conceptualisation of death in our cultural sphere.

For her video installations, Juurak has received the annual prize of the Visual and Applied Art Endowment of the Cultural Endowment of Estonia in 1998 and 2008, the main prize for the annual exhibitions of the Soros Center for Contemporary Arts, Estonia in 1996 and 1997, and several accolades from graphic and poster art biennials.

Anu Juurak has worked as a lecturer and professor of fine arts at the Estonian Academy of Arts. Since 2013 she has been working as the professor of visual art at the Academy of Architecture and Urban Studies in Tallinn University of Technology. Juurak has been a member of the Estonian Artists’ Association since 1989, and the Association of Estonian Printmakers since 2022.

The exhibition will be open until October 9, 2024.

Vabaduse Gallery is managed by the Estonian Artists’ Association.
The gallery is supported by the Estonian Ministry of Culture, the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Liviko Ltd.
Thanks to: Mati Schönberg, Kalle Tiisma.

 Additional information:
Vabaduse Gallery
Tel: +372 5805 0009
E-mail: vabaduse@eaa.ee
Vabaduse väljak 6
10146 Tallinn
Mon–Fri 11.00–18.00
Sat 11.00–17.00