The Atlantic Center of Modern Art (CAAM) of Gran Canaria organises a great retrospective on Esther Ferrer, a complete and pioneer artist who continues to open the gap in the art world at 82 years old. The curator of the exhibition, Carlos Díaz-Bertrana, notes that the showing collects the work of the artist located in “the enigma of time, body, feminism, emptiness, chance, reflection on art and prime numbers”.

Esther Ferrer, "Eurorretrato", 2001 (vía angelsbarcelona.com)

The great, risky, daring, emerging and groundbreaking Esther Ferrer is deployed throughout the CAAM to share with the viewer her concerns and artistic expressions generated throughout her career. This artist, pioneer of performative art in our country and considered one of the most outstanding artists of her generation, began her career at the end of the 60s amid a context eager for changes, hope and openness.

At that time, Esther founded the ZAJ collective together with Juan Hidalgo, Ramón Barce and Walter Marchetti. The group took the work of John Cage as the primary reference of its productions. With that, it began a practice of exploration of performance, with a wholly new and transgressive language for the time. With shows and tours in several theatres in Spain, Esther established herself as a creator at the forefront of art, disturbing, committed and struggling.

Se hace camino al andar - Festival Street Level- Hertogenbosch - Holanda. Foto:Allard Willense – 2002

Despite having an unstoppable career that kept her on top of contemporary since its inception, Esther confessed just a year ago how difficult it is to live from art in Spain. In a report that addressed the precariousness of the cultural sector from the testimony of different professionals, the artist confessed in October 2018 that only since 15 years ago she could live fully from her work, what for many other sectors is a utopia, but for the creative sector, the general rule: to finally be able to dedicate yourself completely to art beyond the retirement age. These difficulties, and an eminently migrant spirit, led Esther to settle in Paris in 1973, where, in addition to continuing to develop her work, she worked as a journalist and pedagogue.

Esther Ferrer, fragmento de "Íntimo y personal", 1977 (vía museoreinasofia.es)

Esther defines herself as a feminist and dealt with this issue on numerous occasions. Her work, which hardly leaves indifferent, has received several awards. In 1999 she was one of the two artists who represented Spain at the Venice Biennale, in 2008 she was awarded the National Prize for Plastic Arts, in 2012 the Gure Artea Prize of the Basque Government, and in 2014 the MAV (Women in the visual arts), the Marie Claire pour l'Art Contemporaine Award and the Velázquez Prize.

We have until March 1st to enjoy her work at CAAM.

ABIERTO INFINITO. LO QUE EL CUERPO RECUERDA. CICLO DE PERFORMANCE X ART MADRID'26

Art Madrid, committed to creating a discursive platform for artists working within the field of performance and action art, presents Abierto Infinito: lo que el cuerpo recuerda, a proposal inspired by Erving Goffman’s ideas in The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (Amorrortu Editores, Buenos Aires, 1997).

The project unfolds within a theoretical framework that directly engages with these premises, conceiving social interaction as a stage of carefully modulated performances designed to influence others’ perceptions. Goffman argues that individuals deploy both verbal and involuntary expressions to guide the interpretation of their behavior, sustaining roles and façades that define the situation for those who observe.

The body — the first territory of all representation — precedes both word and learned gesture. Human experience, conscious and unconscious alike, is inscribed within it. Abierto Infinito: lo que el cuerpo recuerda departs from this premise: representation inhabits existence itself, and life, understood as a succession of representations, transforms the body into a space of constant negotiation over who we are. In this passage, boundaries blur; the individual opens toward the collective, and the ephemeral acquires symbolic dimension. By inhabiting this interstice, performance simultaneously reveals the fragility of identity and the strength that emerges from encounter with others.

PERFORMANCE: OFF LINE. JIMENA TERCERO

March 7 | 7:00 p.m. Galería de Cristal of the Palacio de Cibeles.

OFF LINE is a performance piece that reflects on the fragility of the body in the digital age. Our relationship with the outside world is mediated by a screen, which distances us further and further from physical contact and interpersonal relationships. Focusing on creating a digital identity causes the body to distance itself from the physical world and lose its memory.

Hyperconnectivity and fragmented attention lead to a more passive physical existence, characterised by reduced spontaneous movement and less direct sensory interaction. This raises fundamental questions: how is the concept of presence redefined when our relationship with the world relies on technological mediation? What will the experience of the body be like in a future where virtuality predominates over the physical? There is a risk of progressive bodily passivity: bodies that remain still, whose activity is determined by devices and whose memory is stored digitally. The fragmentation of physical experience and the primacy of technological representation create a scenario in which, although the body is visible, it is displaced from its original function as an agent of perception and action.

This conceptual framework invites reflection on the impact of digitisation on corporeality, memory and social relationships, and on the vulnerability and inertia experienced by bodies in environments that are increasingly mediated by technology.

ABOUT JIMENA TERCERO

Jimena Tercero (Madrid, 1998) is a multidisciplinary artist whose work explores the boundaries of the female body, identity, and the subconscious. She uses performance, video, and painting to address concepts such as memory, tangibility, and play. Tercero trained in painting with Lola Albín and in analog photography at Cambridge in 2014. She studied audiovisual direction from 2018 to 2020 with renowned figures such as Víctor Erice and the production company El Deseo. She is currently pursuing a Master's degree in Creative Direction at ELISAVA. She completed her performance training at La Juan Gallery. In 2011, she was part of the children's jury at the Isfahan Film Festival in Iran.

Her directed works include Private (2016) and Paranoid (2021), which were exhibited at the Aspa Contemporary Gallery. She has also worked on projects such as Yo, mi, me, conmigo (2023, Teatros del Canal), Inside Voices (2021, Conde Duque with Itziar Okariz), and La última regla (La Juan Gallery). She has directed fashion films for publishers and brands such as Puma, Dior, and Dockers. She has also provided art direction for artists such as Sen Senra and Jorge Drexler. Additionally, she directed the documentary Also Here for ArtforChange–La Caixa. She presented Out of View (Nebula Gallery), EDEN (White Lab Gallery), and Navel Bite (Sinespacio). She participates in residencies such as Medialab with Niño de Elche and Miguel Álvarez Fernández. In 2025, she will be part of the Special Jury of the Asian Film Fest in Barcelona and the International Cultural Museum of Assilah Art Residency in Morocco).