Anu Põder: Space for My Body

Anu Põder (1947–2013) is one of Estonia’s most revelatory voices of the last five decades. Her work has stood out since the 1970s as uniquely crafted, originally conceived, and deeply personal. Yet, because it was somehow out of sync with the then established art landscape in Estonia, it has been overlooked for many years. Põder is known for exploring the human body, highlighting the fragility, impermanence, and ephemerality of life in a series of highly evocative sculptures. Throughout her career, she employed unconventional materials such as textile, wax, plaster, soap, plastic, and wood to compose delicate assemblages. Working at the cusp of two major eras—the Soviet occupation of Estonia, which began in 1940, and the new independence gained in 1991—Põder embraced the uncertainty of identity of the Estonian people, working as one of the very few women artists in a decidedly male context and focusing on female subjectivity alongside other international artists such as Magdalena Abakanowicz, Louise Bourgeois, Ana Mendieta, and Alina Szapocznikow.

Exhibition of Anu Põder: Space for My Body at Muzeum Susch curated by Cecilia Alemani is the first major retrospective of the artist outside of her native country providing a comprehensive overview of her artistic career and a thought-provoking narrative highlighting her original contribution to the development of post-war art.

The one-day symposium devoted to the work of Põder, organised as part of the exhibition, and accompanying the artist’s monograph, aims to enhance the international reception of the artist’s oeuvre and present it within a broader context open to new enriching interpretations.

Participants:
Dina Akhmadeeva, assistant curator, International Art at Tate Modern. Cecilia Alemani, curator of Anu Põder: Space for My Body exhibition in Muzeum Susch. Donald R. Mullen, Jr. Director & Chief Curator of High Line Art in New York. In 2022, she curated The Milk of Dreams, the 59th International Art Exhibition at the Venice Biennale. Maria Arusoo, director of Estonian Center for Contemporary Art in Tallinn. Jaan Elken, artist and curator. Hilkka Hiiop, Professor at the Estonian Academy of Arts, Department of Cultural Heritage. Agata Jakubowska, Professor at the Institute of Art History at the University of Warsaw. Linda Kaljundi, Professor of Cultural History at Estonian Academy of Arts. Edith Karlson, Estonian artist based in Tallinn. Maarja Kask, architect, daughter of Anu Põder. Katrin Kivimaa, independent art historian, cultural critic and translator. Marika Kuźmicz, curator of Muzeum Susch and Instituto Susch. Manuela Moscoso, Executive Director of Center for Art Research and Alliances (CARA) in New York. Adomas Narkevičius, curator at Cell Project Space in London. Andreas Nilsson, curator at Moderna Museet Malmö. Agnieszka Sosnowska, curator of Disputaziuns Susch. Anna Szyjkowska-Piotrowska, associated researcher at Sorbonne 1 Pantheon University. Matylda Taszycka, Head of Research Programmes at AWARE: Archives of Women Artists, Research and Exhibitions. Berit Teeäär, artist and cultural manager in Valge Kuup. Triin Tulgiste-Toss, curator of contemporary art at Kumu Art Museum in Tallinn.

Admission free upon registration.

For more information about the programme and web-stream, please follow this link. 
The symposium will be held in English, and will be recorded and available to watch online on our website. 

Program

10am
Greeeting: Grażyna Kulczyk, Founder of Muzeum Susch, Chairwoman of the Board of Art Stations Foundation CH.

Introduction: Cecilia Alemani, curator of Anu Põder: Space for My Body exhibition and Agnieszka Sosnowska, curator of Disputaziuns Susch 

Part I
Anu Põder: Life in Images / slide show based on Triin-Tulgiste-Toss’s text.

Lecture: Cecilia Alemani, “Anu Põder: Space for My Body”

Lecture: Agata Jakubowska, “Anu Põder and Other Women Artists Challenging Socialist Erotic Visual Culture”

Panel discussion: “Anu Põder in Context of Estonian Art” 
Participants: Edith Karlson, Katrin Kivimaa, Berit Teeäär. Moderator: Maria Arusoo.

Lunch break

Screening: Interview with the artist Anu Põder, 2008. Interviewed by Isabel Aaso-Zahradnikova and Juta Kivimäe, Art Museum of Estonia Archives.

Part II 
Panel discussion: “Anu Põder’s Outside the Iron Curtain—International Context” 
Participants: Manuela Moscoso, Andreas Nilsson, Matylda Taszycka. Moderator: Cecilia Alemani.

Lecture: Anna Szyjkowska-Piotrowska, “Anu Põder: Body-Object vs Body-Space”

Panel discussion: “The Altered Form: Notion of the Body and Disfigurement in Anu Põder’s Oeuvre” 
Participants: Dina Akhmadeeva, Linda Kaljundi, Adomas Narkevičius, Anna Szyjkowska-Piotrowska. Moderator: Agnieszka Sosnowska. 

Panel discussion: “On Ephemerality and Materiality of Anu Põder’s Work” 
Participants: Hilkka Hiiop, Maarja Kask, Jaan Elken. Moderator: Marika Kuźmicz.

Online guided tour: Anu Põder: Space for My Body exhibition