Estonian artist Anu Põder (1947-2013) was fascinated by the fragility of the human body, exploring its fleeting nature in works at odds with the classic Soviet art which dominated in the second half of the twentieth century. Põder directed her frustration at the Soviet’s occupation of Estonia in 1940 (until independence gained in 1991) inwards, translating an eclectic jumble of materials - wax, plaster, soap - into sculptures which depicted the inside of the human body.
For the first time, Põder’s work is now the subject of a retrospective outside of her native Estonia, with Anu Põder: Space for My Body, opening at Switzerland’s Muzeum Susch in an exhibition curated by Cecilia Alemani. The museum, expressly created to champion overlooked international avant-garde women artists, will present over forty works dating from 1978 to 2012.
