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Short Term Eternity
Gordon Matta-Clark, Anu Vahtra


Compiled and edited by Anu Allas, Anu Vahtra, Indrek Sirkel
Texts by Hanno Soans, Carl-Dag Lige, Anu Allas, Anu Vahtra


Short Term Eternity brings together two artists – Gordon Matta-Clark (1943–1978, USA) and Anu Vahtra (1982, Estonia) – whose practices are related to each other in many ways, even if they are born at different times and in different locations. The aim of the book is not just to compare their work, but to describe the circling of ideas and strategies in the art world from a non-hierarchical perspective. The book is published on the occasion of Gordon Matta-Clark: Anarchitect. Anu Vahtra: Completion through removal, an exhibition at Kumu Art Museum in Tallinn, 22.02.–8.06.2019, curated by Sergio Bessa, Jessamyn Fiore, and Anu Allas.

As a contrast to the large-scale installations in both Matta-Clark’s and Vahtra’s practice, the book is small. The content is printed on thin paper and is divided into three parts: it starts with Completion through removal, a series of photographs by Anu Vahtra showing the spatial intervention realised in the Great Hall in Kumu and ends with the illustrated script of Vahtra’s performance piece Open House Closing. A Walk. The middle section of the book includes three thoroughly illustrated essays, where the images are printed overleaf from the text and are only visible through the page in a gap in the text at their intended location. These gaps or cuts in the text refer to the empty space, characteristic for the practices of both Matta-Clark and Vahtra.

The book was published in two separate editions, in English and in Estonian.


110  ×  165 mm
248 pp
Offset printing
Perfect binding
Dust jacket
Graphic design: Indrek Sirkel
Typeface: Times, Courier, Helveesti (Dinamo)
Paper: Amber Graphic 70g, Munken Lynx 200g
Printed by Tallinn Book Printers
Supported by Cultural Endowment of Estonia
Edition of 350 (EST) + 550 (ENG)
Published by Lugemik & Art Museum of Estonia
ISBN 978-9949-7234-5-4 (EST)
ISBN 978-9949-18-990-8 (ENG)
2019