EstherFerrer
Biography
Esther Ferrer (b. 1937 in San Sebastián, Spain, lives and works in Paris) is a Spanish interdisciplinary artist internationally recognized for her performances addressing the transience of the female body in social space. Her artistic practice began in Spain in the late Franco period, appearing alongside Hidalgo and Marchetti as a key member of the group Zaj from 1967 onwards. In Ferrer’s works, her body represents an instrument of resistance. The action Intimo y personal, dating back to 1975, unfolds with the measurement of the artist’s body and that of others, evolving each time it is performed. For Ferrer, identity shifts and transforms, escaping the triviality of gender standardization. In the 1970s, she left Spain and settled in Paris, working with staged photography, installation, and sculpture. Objects such as hammers, clocks, and chairs are recurring props in her works, playing with their contexts and sacralizing them beyond the domestic environment. Ferrer has received the Marie-Claire Prize for Contemporary Art in France, the Velazquez Prize (2014), and the Bernard Heidsieck Literary Prize (2022). In 1999, she represented Spain at the Biennale di Venezia. Her works have been displayed internationally, with exhibitions at, among others, the Fundació Joan Miró in Barcelona (2017), the Reina Sofía in Madrid (2017), the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (2018), the CaixaForum in Barcelona (2019), and the Kunst- und Kulturstiftung Opelvillen Rüsselsheim (2022).
