Sophia Süßmilch (b. Dachau, 1983; lives and works in Berlin) pursues a multimedia creative approach, fabricating eccentric worlds that blend painting and sculpture, installation, performance, and video art. Pendulous breasts painted in a naïve and psychedelic style that look like alphorns; ceramic anuses that populate the museum’s wall like flocks of birds; self-portraits with all sorts of props, always stark naked: in their agitational directness, Süßmilch’s works transmit profound aesthetic experiences that reflect beauty ideals, gender roles, and social norms to the canvas, the photographic paper, and into the exhibition space.

For her monthlong Sanatorium Süßmilch, the artist transforms the Francisco Carolinum Linz into her own clinical universe—a mix of psychiatry and run-down princess palace. Kitted out with yard after yard of artificial hair, a giant bed that resembles a vagina forms the center of her illustrious clinic and serves as the stage for Süßmilch’s engagement with the themes of care, illness, womanhood, and patriarchy. The work of finishing the furniture is one key aspect of the project; the other is a tightly organized daily schedule, which centers on conversations with twenty-five women. Probing twenty-five questions, Süßmilch devises her own global-solution formula, which structures the publication of the same title. Diary entries and other materials complement the conversations. With an introduction by the art historian Gabriele Spindler and a conversation between the artist and Clemens J. Setz.