Réalités estoniennes

The Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris is presenting for the first time in a French museum an exhibition devoted to three Estonian women artists whose work spans from the mid-20th century to the present day: Olga Terri (1916–2011), Anu Põder (1947–2013) and Kris Lemsalu (born 1985).

The exhibition highlights the richness and vitality of the Estonian art scene through the perspectives of these three artists from different generations. Each in her own way reflects a phase of creation in a country with a history as fascinating as it is troubled.

Marked by its tension between European and Russian spheres of influence, Estonia has nevertheless preserved an original, abundant and dynamic culture, which informs the works on display.

The treatment of the human body serves as a unifying thread across the work of the three women artists: a body at times abandoned, fragmented, augmented, transformed, exuberant or combative.

Anu Põder, a central figure of the exhibition (1947–2013)
Anu Põder is one of the major rediscoveries in recent art history. Through some fifteen works, the exhibition unfolds the singular universe of an artist whose practice developed outside the academic constraints of her time. The materials used by Anu Põder convey the precarity of her condition under the Soviet era as much as they reveal the upheavals of Estonian society at the country’s independence (burlap, plastic, soap, aluminium foil…). The artist’s body is often present implicitly in her vulnerable, fragile sculptures, which refuse to be confined to traditional modes of figuration.

Olga Terri, postwar painting (1916–2011)
One room presents a series of portraits executed between 1945 and 1950 by Olga Terri. They bear witness to the personal and collective torments endured during the immediate postwar period, as Nazi occupation made way for Soviet occupation. A melancholic atmosphere emanates from her taciturn figures painted in muted colors; their limp postures express a sense of imminent faltering.

Kris Lemsalu, a contemporary vision (born 1985)
The exhibition concludes with a monumental installation and new works by contemporary visual artist and performer Kris Lemsalu, conceived for the show. The artist imagines an extravagant, burlesque universe populated by hybrid beings that straddle the human and the non-human, embodying a contemporary reading of Estonian pantheism as well as a satirical take on contemporary society.