Esther Ferrer (born 1937 in

San Sebastián San Sebastian, officially known as Donostia–San Sebastián (names in both local languages: ''Donostia'' () and ''San Sebastián'' ()) is a city and municipality located in the Basque Autonomous Community, Spain. It lies on the coast of the ...

, Spain) is a Spanish

performance artist Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

. Ferrer received Spain's National Award for Plastic Arts (1999), the Marie-Claire Prize for Contemporary Art in France, and the Velázquez Plastic Arts Prize.

History and career

In 1966 she joined Walter Marchetti and

Juan Hidalgo Codorniu Juan Hidalgo Codorniu (14 October 1927 – 26 February 2018) was a Spanish composer, poet, an action and visual artist. Biography Hidalgo was born in Las Palmas, Canary Islands. After studying piano and composition in Barcelona and Paris wit ...

in the Spanish performance art group

Zaj Zaj was an experimental music and performance art group formed in 1959 in Milan, Italy by composers and intermedia artists Walter Marchetti and Juan Hidalgo with the support of the American composer John Cage. The group received major contribution ...

, famous for its radical and conceptual performances, whose controversial "concerts" were presented in Spanish concert halls despite the censorship of Franco's regime. Zaj also performed in many other countries for 30 years, until 1996, when the group broke up after a retrospective in the

Reina Sofia Museum Reina (the Spanish word for queen) or La Reina may refer to: Geography * Reina, Badajoz, a municipality in the province of Badajoz, Extremadura, Spain * Reina, Estonia, a village in Saaremaa Parish, Saare County, Estonia * La Reina, a commune ...

in Madrid. As a performer she has participated in festivals in Canada, Korea, the United States and Japan, and throughout Europe (France, Italy, Holland Belgium, Bulgaria, Switzerland, England, the Czech Republic, Poland, Denmark, Norway, Slovakia, Germany and Hungary). Her production also includes objects, photos, video pieces, visual systems based on prime numbers, and a large collection of self-portraits in many media. Ferrer is the author of two radio productions made for Radio Nacional de España (''Au rhythm du temps'' and ''Ta, te, ti, to, tu ou l'agriculture dans le Moyen Age'') and has given seminars on the performance arts in Universities and in Schools of Fine Arts in Spain, France, Italy, Canada, Switzerland and Mexico. Ferrer represented Spain in the Venice Bienal in 1999, and did large individual shows in subsequent years in the FRAC Bretagne (Rennes, France), MACVAL (Val de Marne, France), and with the

Instituto Cervantes Instituto Cervantes (the Cervantes Institute) is a worldwide nonprofit organization created by the Spanish government in 1991. It is named after Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616), the author of ''Don Quixote'' and perhaps the most important figur ...

in several South American cities. In autumm 2022 opened a solo retrospective exhibit in Opelvillen Rüsselsheim, as part of Spain being guest of honour at

Frankfurt book fair The Frankfurt Book Fair (German: Frankfurter Buchmesse, FBM) is the world's largest trade fair for books, based on the number of publishing companies represented. It is considered to be the most important book fair in the world for internationa ...

2022. In September 2022, Esther Ferrer was the recipient of the Prix international de Littérature Bernard Heidsieck Prix d'honneur awarded by

Centre Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou ( en, National Georges Pompidou Centre of Art and Culture), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English, is a complex building in the Beaubourg area of ...

an
Archivio Conz
She is married to minimalist composer Tom Johnson.

References

External links

Archivio Conz

Esther Ferrer: Works and Process
Two-part documentary series on Esther Ferrer
FONS AUDIO #1: Esther Ferrer
A podcast on the artist and the Za
Group

Official Esther Ferrer Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ferrer, Esther 1936 births Living people Spanish contemporary artists Interdisciplinary artists 20th-century Spanish women artists 21st-century Spanish women artists