EESTI FOTOKUNSTIMESS 2014
PHOTOGRAPHIC ART FAIR 2014

Anu Vahtra

Anu Vahtra’s series “Muuseum 1–5” (Museum 1–5) depicts the building of the Tartu Art Museum, or what is known as the Leaning House, in the Town Hall Square in Tartu. Formally, the series displays traits extremely characteristic of Vahtra’s work. The focus of the series is physical space, at the same time the artist is primarily interested in the spatial perspective and the architectonics creating it. It is unthinkable that Vahtra could have resisted the temptation and not photographed the spiral stairs of the museum and the slanting door of the second floor balcony.

The use of perspective in Vahtra’s work is not merely an aesthetic manoeuvre, it also has a significant place in conjuring up meaning in the work, mainly functioning as an element structuring and arranging the artists gaze, in relation to which the space tells its story. The photographs depicting the basement and attic of the museum are filled with random junk; however, in the midst of all this chaos, the composition is held together by the geometry of the display. In a manner very characteristic of Vahtra, the series concludes with a photograph that transforms the substantive static into a dynamic play with the architectonic. Both the perspective of the beams in the ceiling and the emergency exit breaking up the monotony of the blank wall, direct the viewer’s gaze to the door. So, above all, the geometry functions as a structuring element, while the building tells its story through a symbolic layer.

Initially made for “Entry Points – Stories of the Leaning House”, a book published on the occasion of the exhibition “Archeological Festival – a 2nd hand history and improbable obsessions” in Tartu Art Museum, 19.06.–24.08.2014, curated by Maria Arusoo.

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www.anuvahtra.com