Art Madrid'23 – Esther Ferrer: an artist of performance

Esther Ferrer, 2012. Photo ©Publiescena.

 

 

 

Esther Ferrer was a pioneer in the art of performance, precisely at a complicated historical moment in terms of freedom of thought and expression. Her figure stands out not only for the fact of entering into the artistic action as a form of manifestation but also for being a woman in an eminently masculine context.

 

 

 

Esther Ferrer, Biografía para una exposición, 1982. Collage. Photography and ink on paper.

 

 

 

Esther joined in 1967 the group Zaj, along with Ramón Barce, Walter Marchetti and Juan Hidalgo. It was a transgressor and critic collective who, however, knew how to break through in the 60s and 70s and offer a multitude of artistic performances, even before they were named as such. Faithful to its Decalogue, Zaj organised actions in numerous Spanish cities but never allowed their performances to be filmed. As Esther, herself explains, "I have never asked for help from the Franco regime or tried to participate in anything they organised." They wanted to maintain their independence.

 

 

 

Incidents at the Teatro Gayarre during the performance of Zaj in the Encounters of Pamplona, 1972. Via: lajuntadecarter.com.

 

 

 

Settled down in France for many years, a country where she has lived more than in Spain, she worked as a journalist and translator for Gallic media specialising in art with outstanding collaborations in El País or Lápiz magazine. This creator has always been concerned with pedagogy and the role of women in society. In fact, she educated in teaching and pedagogy. She founded with José Antonio Sistiaga a school focused on promoting free expression of children, based on the method of the French pedagogue Freinet, whose technique gives absolute freedom to children from the creative aspect.

 

 

 

Esther Ferrer, Canon para siete sillas. Performance, 1990.

 

 

 

The Reina Sofía exhibition, titled "Todas las variaciones son válidas, incluida esta", offers a tour of her artistic career and focuses on the analysis of the author's own creative process, very interested in representing the passing of time, the changes of the body, and the mobilisation. She lives all these questions in the first person and, although she tries to be objective, she recognises that there is always something of ourselves that sneaks into our expressions.

 

In the year 2020 in the heart of Barcelona a wandering gallery was born, the same one that in February 2021 would debut at Art Madrid with an exhibition proposal focused on contemporary portraits; with this subject matter it would manage to create a powerful dialogue between artwork and audience and make the seal Inéditad remain in the history of the event that contained it.

Jean Carlos Puerto. Protección. Oil and copper leaf on wood. 60 x 48. 2021. Image courtesy of the gallery.

Since that first time and until today, the wandering gallery has managed to build projects on otherness, has repositioned in the spotlight the discourses on the LGTBIQ+ collective, has consolidated a group of artists who share its principles of resilience and empathy and the best thing is that it continues to bet from the professionalism and commitment to give voice to the difference.

Claudio Petit-Laurent.. El Joven de la Perla. Oil on wood. 30 x 30 cm. 2023. Image courtesy of the gallery.

Inéditad Gallery, thanks to its founder Luis López, its collaborators and the infinite possibilities manifested in the works of the artists it represents, is a gallery that has demonstrated its capacity and courage to stimulate the sensibility of the public through art and seduce a generation that moves between the glass window and the analogical story. Inéditad is a nomadic gallery that has gathered around it a community of artists and has moved the context with exhibition projects that think about LGTBIQ+ art without prejudices.

Pepa Salas Vilar. Las marcas del arcoiris. Oil on canvas. 40 x 50 cm. 2022. Image courtesy of the gallery.

Pride and Prejudice was inaugurated. An exhibition that brings together the works of sixteen artists: Abel Carrillo, Alex Domènech, Carlos Enfedaque, Silvia Flechoso, Jamalajama, Daniel Jaén, Claudio Petit-Laurent, Jean Carlos Puerto, Fernando Romero, Pablo Rodríguez, Pepa Salas Vilar, Jack Smith, Pablo Sola, Bran Sólo, Elia Tomás and Utürüo. Painting, illustration, photography and digital art are the manifestations that bring into dialogue around fifty neatly threaded pieces, in a discursive line that discusses such a latent phenomenon as discrimination. To achieve this, the artists invited to the exhibition question themselves whether: Does discrimination exist within the LGTBIQ+ collective?

Pride and Prejudice Official Poster. Image courtesy of the gallery.

With approaches on and from the body, the proposal invites to celebrate diversity, proposes to question and self-question the prejudices and attitudes of society against the collective. Pride and Prejudice is a space for dialogue about the constructs imposed on us by society. It is also an oasis in which to deconstruct with tolerance and respect the subjectivities that sometimes prevent us from approaching the production of the participating artists, simply because "the beautiful" does not fit in an androgynous body. The subjugation of stereotypes are pressed with determination to find the beauty of diversity in other palpable facets of reality.

Pablo Sola. All men are dogs. Photography. 2014. Image courtesy of the gallery.

Throughout these three years Inéditad has stimulated the vindictive projection towards bad practices, has questioned estates around the LGTBIQ+ body and the most admirable thing, is that these capacities have resurfaced around the dialogue and the visual narrative of the stories that are told from the visual: Artworks that are people, art that is, per se, humanity. Overcome impositions and accept what is different in order to continue fighting against homophobia, biphobia, lesbophobia or transphobia and defend the equal rights that all the acronyms of the collective deserve in our community.

That's Pride and Prejudice: One creature, the happiest in the world. And maybe other projects and other people have said it - or felt it - before, but none so fairly.

Silvia Flechoso. Hola, soy maricón. Oil on canvas. 73 x 54 cm. 2023. Image courtesy of the gallery.

From June 8th until June 22nd you can visit Pride and Prejudice. Carrer de Palau núm. 4. Canal Gallery space. Barcelona.