Esther Ferrer

Esther Ferrer (Donostia / San Sebastián, 1937)

In 1963 she formed the Free Speech Workshop in San Sebastian and later the Experimental School of Elorrio, together with José Antonio Sistiaga. In 1967 she joined ZAJ (created in 1964 by Ramón Barce, Juan Hidalgo and Walter Marchetti) and carried out numerous artistic performances, under the generic title of concerts, until the group was disbanded in 1996. At the beginning of the 1970s she settled in Paris, at which time she began her journalistic collaborations with media publications such as Egin, El país, Jano and Lápiz. Over the last 50 years she has worked in different media: drawings, installations, photography and, most commonly, actions where the body has been the protagonist.

A pioneer and one of the main representatives of performance art in Spain, she has carried out numerous performances in different festivals, museums and international art centres. Her work has been exhibited in the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; Centre National de la Danse, Paris; Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao; MAC/VAL, Frac Bretagne, Rennes; Artium, Vitoria; Museum for Samtidskunst, Roskilde; Koldo Mitxelena, Donostia-San Sebastian; Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo, Seville; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Fundació Antoni Tàpies, Barcelona; Círculo de Bellas Artes, Madrid; Museu Nacional de Belas Artes, Río de Janeiro; Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona; Centrale for Contemporary Art, Brussels; MACBA-Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Barcelona.

In 1999 she represented Spain at the Venice Biennale.

She has been awarded the following prizes: in 2006, the Trace-John Boehme Performance Art - Lifetime Achievement Award; in 2008, the Spanish Premio Nacional de Artes Plásticas; in 2012, the Gure Artea Prize; and in 2014, the MAV Prize (Women in Visual Arts) and the Premio Velázquez de Artes Plásticas.