susan hefuna: "7 x ana"

SIGMUND FREUD MUSEUM, VIENNA
7 october 2010 - 13 March 2011

“Ana,” the transliteration of the Arabic characters, means “I” in the Arabic language and is associated with responsibility, initiative and independence. One of the central aspects of Susan Hefuna’s art is also the way in which it plays with the different possible readings and effects of an artwork. It has often happened that her masks Screens I – VI have been interpreted as “African” and therefore “exotic” on account of the artist’s German-Egyptian origins. And yet these art works were inspired by the wooden masks used in the rites of the Swabian-Alemanic Carnival. They reflect Freud’s insight that the uncanny is rooted in the domestic. Moreover, they are a reminder that there is no human existence without mask (and masquerade), exposing the postulate of unmasked authenticity (something that continues to exist in psychoanalysis) as a phantasm. The photo also plays with alleged authenticity. It can clearly be interpreted as “historic,” whereby it stages the artist herself sitting on the carpet-covered couch... Her glance mirrors the onlooker’s: seeing always means being seen as well.

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