Dreams and Dreaming - their place in our lives
3 May, 2:00 - 3:00pm
Freud Museum
20 Maresfield Gardens
London, NW3 5SX United Kingdom
A workshop exploring the Korean concept of “buying dreams” in the context of Freudian dream theory and psychoanalysis.
This workshop is part of the DREAM AUCTION art project inspired by an aspect of Korean culture that deals with dreams. In Korea, discussing dreams and interpreting their meaning amongst friends and family is a popular way of identifying symbols that can shed light on the events in a person’s future. Often dreams containing particularly desirable elements are informally “sold”, transferring energy or a state of mind from one close connection to another. Artist Bongsu Park has been exploring this concept as a point of departure for an ongoing series of works that have spanned performance, video, sound composition, and social exchanges.
During the workshop, art historian Jamie Ruers will introduce dream theory in Freud’s writings and case studies. We will also learn about the representation of dreams in the history of art. This will situate Bongsu’s art practice in the context of the Freud Museum.
There will be a chance for us to discuss examples of dreams, from Freud’s writings or from Bongsu’s past projects. Discussion and sharing of dreams with one other person helps recall dreams and gives an opportunity to re-evaluate their meaning and importance, easing us into the process of writing. Participants are invited to contribute their dreams for future Dream Auction Project’s art creation and events.
Bongsu Park is a London-based Korean artist. She studied at the Slade School of Fine Arts, UK and at l’Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux, France. She has exhibited internationally including Zona Maco-Sample, FIAC-cinéphémère, The Moving Image Istanbul, Barcelona LOOP, Gyungnam Art Museum in Changwon, South Korea and her performance work showed at Camden Arts Centre, Rosenfeld Porcini gallery and the Print Room Coronet Theatre in London.
Jamie Ruers is an art historian specialising in modernist art and film, particularly from a psychoanalytic discipline. She has worked at the Freud Museum for over 5 years and has published on subjects such as site-responsive contemporary art, gesamtkunstwerk in Vienna 1900, and Surrealist art and cinema. She has delivered seminars on dreams in art. Her first co-edited book, Freud/Lynch: Behind the Curtain, is due to be published in 2020.
