The Museum will be closed on Easter Friday 29 March and Easter Sunday 31 March. We are open as usual on Saturday 30 March.

Einfall: Beyond Spontaneity

16 September 2009 to 4 October 2009

Contemporary ceramic & glass artists and designers explore the Freud Museum in an exhibition of site-responsive works.

The Freudian concept of freier einfall, or free association, relates to notions and ideas that arise spontaneously in the mind, apparently unrelated to a person’s conscious thoughts, but which may have a hidden, unconscious significance. This is one of the key foundations of Freudian psychoanalysis; the idea that even the most trivial thoughts are deeply meaningful in an analytical context.

Eighteen Masters students at the Royal College of Art’s prestigious School of Applied Arts have been invited to make new work in response to the museum. Through installation, sculpture and a highly challenging performance piece, the artists challenge conventions of ceramics and glass practice, and confront our deepest fears and hidden desires, The exhibition reveals highly personal and original visual responses to the rich history and material embodied in the Freud Museum.

The Artists have examined and explored aspects of the home of Sigmund and Anna Freud, their practice, writings, and the extraordinary collection of artwork and artefacts, which include a considerable amount of historic ceramic and glass pieces.

This September, in and around the Freud Museum, they will make relationships through mental leaps and unlikely linkages, objects and apparitions will appear, placed discretely within the rooms, yet drawn from the psyche.