PRESS RELEASE

ART ALLMÄGI (1983) will open his personal exhibition I had a dream last night ... in Hobusepea gallery at 6pm on January 18, 2012.

Art Allmägi has recently obtained a Master's Degree in sculpture at Estonian Academy of Arts and has been participating in various group exhibitions and symposiums since 2004.

The artist's current exhibition I had a dream last night ... is contemplating popular homophobic attitudes in contemporary Estonian society through the artist's – a young heterosexual man's - personal prism. On one hand, the exhibition has the effect of an innocent parody on Freudism; on the other hand, it critically points out the neo-conservative anger towards everything declared as „abnormal“ - the anger that has acquired almost patholological dimensions in Estonian society and internet commentaries. Thus, present exposition has been constructed as an anecdote with the savor of absurd. After the meeting with his model T, young male artist starts having a strange series of dreams at nights where several public figures keep appearing and disturbing the artist with their questions and naughty suggestions. However, where does the line go between (hidden) homophobic fears, other (hidden) fears and anxieties that maybe the personal orientation one has established by the present day is not the one and the only? Whereas dreams are considered to be a mirror of a human soul to a certain extent, then recurring dreams with „homoerotic“ content can certainly make a self-conscious young man „distressed“. Current exhibition consisting of colourful neopop sculptures and explanatory videos inevitably guides the viewer towards the critical analysis of one's personal prejudices about sexual minorities. Yet, shouldn't the subject of one's night dreams be left everyone's private matter?

Exhibition will be open until January 30th, 2012.

Supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.