Acción Cultural Española and ARTIUM present the exhibition Esther Ferrer. En cuatro movimientos

Exhibition
Esther Ferrer. En cuatro movimientos
North Gallery, from October 8, 2011 to January 8, 2012
Curator: Rosa Olivares
Organised by ARTIUM (Vitoria-Gasteiz) and Acción Cultural Española (AC/E), with the co-production of Es baluard (Palma) and the Centro Gallego de Arte Contemporáneo (Santiago de Compostela)
Sponsors: Naturgas and the Provincial Council in Alava
Exhibition catalogue published by ARTIUM and AC/E with texts by David Pérez, Tom Johnson, Sergio Rubira, Alberto Sánchez Balmisa, Margarita de Aizpuru and Rosa Olivares.
Performance by Esther Ferrer: Friday, October 7 at 5:30 PM
Inauguration: Saturday, October 8 at 8 PM.

Exhibition   Press release (pdf)

ARTIUM, Basque Centre-Museum of Contemporary Art, and Acción Cultural Española (AC/E) present the exhibition En cuatro movimientos, by Esther Ferrer. (North Gallery, from October 8, 2011 to January 8, 2012.) The exhibition is organised in four blocks around the concepts of time, the infinite, repetition and presence, essential to an understanding of the career of this Gipuzkoa-born artist, each one represented by works of an objectual nature, installations, videos and performance documents. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue published by ARTIUM and AC/E, with texts by David Pérez, Rosa Olivares, Tom Johnson, Sergio Rubira, Alberto Sánchez Balmisa and Margarita de Aizpuru. Curated by Rosa Olivares, Esther Ferrer. En cuatro movimientos is organised by AC/E and ARTIUM, and is coproduced by Es Baluard of Palma de Mallorca and the CGAC of Santiago de Compostela. In 2012, this itinerant exhibition will be shown at the above galleries. The exhibition is sponsored by Naturgas and the Provincial Council of Alava.

Esther Ferrer (San Sebastián, 1937) is without doubt one of the prominent figures of contemporary Spanish art. However, in spite of many years of creative activity, of the numerous series of works created since the 60s, of the presentation of countless performances throughout the world and in spite of being widely recognised as one of the most important performers, her work has not been appreciated to the same extent in Spain. A number of one-woman shows in the Basque Country as well as several workshops and performances, especially in recent years, have led to a certain degree of recognition, consolidated following the award of the National Plastic Arts Prize in 2008. It was as of that moment when her contribution to conceptual art was realised more clearly.

"En cuatro movimientos" does not attempt to be an anthological or a retrospective exhibition of Esther Ferrer, but a way of visualising essential concepts that have prevailed in her work, now and in the past, in other words, time, the infinite, repetition and presence. The exhibition is built, therefore, around these four concepts, each one being represented by different works by Esther Ferrer: pieces that are objectual in nature (photographs, paintings, objects), installations performed in the gallery itself and performance works.  The latter are presented, in each case, by means of documents of different kinds (drawings, photographs, videos). In this way, a limited number of very specific works express in a very succinct manner the themes that Esther Ferrer has worked on throughout her artistic career.

Thus, the “time” concept in the work of Esther Ferrer is represented by two well-known series of photographs, Autorretrato en el tiempo and Autorretrato en el espacio, together with the installation El hilo del tiempo and scores and documentation from some of her performances: Al ritmo del tiempo (1 and 2), Dar tiempo al tiempo, La primera media hora and El tiempo de la performance. Following this, the space dedicated to “the infinite” contains the installation and score of El muro de los inmortales, as well as the audio piece entitled Los infinitos. Likewise, the concept is expressed in two series of drawings and canvases entitled Pi, and the screening of  Los decimales de Pi, which give an idea of the interest of Esther Ferrer in the universe of numbers.

In the section dedicated to “repetition”, the artist creates several variations around the action of Recorrer un cuadrado de todas las formas posibles, an installation in space, drawings on the wall, a series of drawings on onionskin and documentation on the performance of the same title, making up this section. Finally, the concept of “presence” has another large installation that requires the participation of the spectator, En el marco del arte, a piece that the artist created in 1999 when she represented Spain at the Venice biennial, a work that can be seen for the first time in this country. Next to this, a series of frames, such as, for example, La puerta sin puerta, En el marco del arte naturista, En el marco del arte moderno and En el marco del arte postmoderno, among others. Also, the installation En el marco de la historia del arte and the score and video-graphic documentation of the action En el marco del arte.

Esther Ferrer

Esther Ferrer is well-known for her performances (her main form of expression since 1965), carried out both individually and as part of the ZAJ group (until it broke up in 1996).

Her work has always revolved around a number of ephemeral actions more than around a permanent kind of artistic production. In the early 60s, together with the painter José Antonio Sistiaga, she set up the first Free Expression Workshop, as well as an experimental school in Elorrio (Vizcaya). This experience was a source of inspiration for other, similar groups in Spain.

As of the mid-70s, she also focused their attention in terms of plastic arts on highly elaborate photographs, installations, objects, paintings based on the series of prime numbers, Pi, etc. Her work is a very particular form of minimalism. A style that she sometimes refers to as a "rigorous absurd"

Esther Ferrer has done performances and taken part in festivals throughout the world, including Spain, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, France, Denmark, Norway, England, Holland, Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Bulgaria, Mexico, Brazil, Cuba, United States, Canada, Thailand, Japan, Korea, etc.

She also exhibits her plastic oeuvre on a regular basis. Some of her most notable exhibitions were at the Reina Sofía National Museum and Arts Centre, Madrid; Trayecto Gallery, Vitoria; Angels Gallery, Barcelona; Trinta Gallery, Santiago de Compostela; Koldo Mitxelena, San Sebastián; Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo, Sevilla; Statsgalerie, Stuttgart (Germany); Contemporary Art Museum Roskilde (Denmark); Fine Arts Museum, Río de Janeiro (Brazil); Cervantes Institute in Rome (Italy), Sofia (Bulgaria), Sao Paolo and Bahía (Brazil).

She has given numerous courses at Universities and Fine Arts Schools both in Spain and abroad. She has created radiophonic works such as Al ritmo del tiempo, TA TE TI TO TU and La agricultura en la Edad Media.

In 1999, she was one of two artists who represented Spain at the Venice biennial and in 2008, she was awarded the National Plastic Arts Prize.

 

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