Freud Dreams of Rome

There are three bookworks in the artist Sharon Kivland’s new series, Freud on Holiday. They all concern her particular relation to the work of Sigmund Freud. Through photographs and essays, Kivland’s books re-imagine journeys made (and sometimes dreamt) by Freud to European sites of archaeological importance.
 
In the first book in the series, Freud Dreams of Rome, Kivland explores the longing for Rome which Freud felt as he worked on his seminal project The Interpretation of Dreams. Freud dreamt of visiting Rome four times before actually getting there – when his experience of Rome shifted from the imaginary to the real. Kivland’s book creates an uncanny atmosphere, as do the images, allowing the reader to take a dérive through Freud’s imagination. The images - introduced as ‘Freud’s holiday photographs of Rome’ - are rather strange. They show no people. They are oddly cropped. They reveal only impasses, dark courtyards, angles of buildings. They appear as plates, tipped-in after the printing of the book. Their source is uncertain. The text appears to be a conference paper, with sudden asides and peculiar distractions.