Marisa Cornejo Studio

Research artist in the fields of memory, identity and migration

  • El Ancestro

    Casa Memoria José Domingo Cañas, Santiago
    11.2013

    Artist: Eugenio Cornejo
    Curators: Marisa Cornejo and Bernardo de Castro
    Workshop: Engraving for the public with the help of engraver Lola Arias
    Venue: Casa Memoria José Domingo Cañas, Santiago, Chile
    Date: November 2013

    For the exhibition El Ancestro ( The Ancestor), Cornejo brings back to Chile in a portafolio by plane the graphic materials her father produced in exile to exhibit them in Casa Memoria José Domingo Cañas. This place with an emblematic story and few blocks from her family home was used as a secret prison by the D.I.N.A. (Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional) from 1974 until the end of the Pinochet regime in 1990. There people lost their lives after being tortured, 43 people “disappeared” until now and the atrocities commited there are beyond human comprehension. Before having being transformed into a detention centre, Casa Memoria used to be a normal house in Ñuñoa, a middle class neighbourhood of Santiago de Chile. Once the dictatorial regime of Augusto Pinochet finished it took more than 10 years of social struggle of human right activists resisting gentrification to transform this place into a memorial public space.
    El Ancestro     is the first exhibition of the graphic production of Eugenio Cornejo (1940-2002) kept for 35 years in a personal archive in exile produced as an affective artistic practice for memory and justice. His graphic work in this place gives voice to the silenced victims building a new layer of knowledge and meaning to our story.
    The exhibition El Ancestro was produced with the help of Bernardo de Castro and the support of my mother and his wife Nora Gatica Krug.
    The exhibition was finished with an engraving workshop were collectivelly the public reprinted some of Eugenio’s engraving plates with the help of artist Lola Arias putting in action a transgenerational reparation practice.

  • El Milagro Chileno

    Galería Metropolitana, Santiago, Chile
    12.2009–01.2010

    Artist: Marisa Cornejo
    Curated by: Ana María Saavedra and Luis Alarcón 
    Venue: Galería Metropolitana, Santiago, Chile
    Date: 12.2009–01.2010

    L’exposition El Milagro Chileno («Le miracle chilien») s’articule autour de la réalité sociale des Chiliens (droits fondamentaux bafoués et dégradation sociale), mettant en exergue l’effort de survie quotidien d’une population au sein du modèle économique de libre-échange instauré par la force dans les années 1970. 
    El Milagro Chileno prend la forme d’une compilation de documents tels que lettres de licenciement, factures de frais médicaux et d’éducation, recouvrements judiciaires, requêtes rejetées, passeports tamponnés, etc., qui illustrent le prix du miracle chilien, une politique qui est encore d’actualité.
    El Milagro Chileno comprend cette compilation de documents, une série de portraits sous forme d’ex-voto des titulaires des documents et un film retraçant des histoires individuelles pour constituer une sorte d’archive locale de la mémoire.
    El Milagro Chileno est à la fois une réflexion sur le déracinement, autour de thématiques telles que l’exonération politique, l’emprisonnement, la migration forcée et l’exil, et un exercice de mémoire collective non institutionnelle basé sur des témoignages personnels.

    EL MILAGRO CHILENO (THE CHILEAN MIRACLE) serves as a a warning about the difficult reality of contemporary Chilean life (lack of basic human rights and social degradation), and demonstrates the daily struggle needed for survival in a free market economy, forced on the society since the mid seventies.
    EL MILAGRO CHILENO is a collection of documents from dismissal letters, medical and educational bills, denied requests, to marked passports and judicial charges, etc.  all bearing witness to the cost of the Chilean Miracle, a policy that is still in place today. Apart from the documents the installation also includes a series of portraits of those who were interviewed for this project  and a video with personal stories, all of which come together to construct a local memory archive.
    EL MILAGRO CHILENO is also a reflection on being uprooted, focusing on such topics as: exoneration, prison, compulsory migration and exile; it is also  an exercise in creating collective memory based mainly on life testimonies separate from any single institution.
    Galería Metropolitana, Ana María Saavedra and Luis Alarcón, Santiago, December 2009

  • Nacimientos navideños

    La Panadería, México City
    17.12.1997

    Title: Nacimientos navideños. Hechos por artistas de Vanguardia
    Artists: Pablo Vargas Lugo, Katia Duregon, Miguel Calderón, Artemio, Adriana Días de Cossio, Marisa Cornejo, Joshua Okon, Taca, Daniela Rossel and Rodrigo Aldana
    Venue: La Panadería, Amsterdan 159, Col. Condesa, México City, México
    Date: 17 December 1997

    Invitation card
    Detail 1
    Detail 2

  • XX, reflexionar la violencia

    Centro Cultural Contreras, México City
    03.–1997

    Artists: Marisa Cornejo, María Ezcurra and Mariana Gulco
    Curated by: María Ezcurra
    Venue: Centro Cultural Contreras, México City, México
    Date: March, 1997

    Press clipping

  • 80 retratos

    Artist studio, Mexico City
    29.11.–01.12.1996

    Artist: Marisa Cornejo
    venuee: Artist studio,
    Licenciado Verdad, Centro Histórico, Mexico City, México
    Date: 29.11.–01.12.1996

    After having a dream where I was headless I decided to do a project where asked friends, neighbours, family members and colleagues to make a portrait of myself. This project became my degree thesis called Multifacetica, making a link between my dream and various myths of decapitated goddesses. I exhibited this drawings in my studio with other related works before my professional exam.

    Works
    Flyer

  • México develado

    Centro Cultural Isidro Falabella, México
    1996

    Title: Limpia: en el arca hay sitio para todos
    Exhibition: México develado
    Artists: Carlos Arias, Pedro Barra, Marisa Cornejo, Roberto Duarte, Alejandro Escribano, Ingrid Fugellie, Oscar Hernández, Cristian Marambio, Claudio Rivera, Edwin Rojas, Eugenia Vargas and Isabel Viviani
    Curated by: Claudio Rivera
    Venue: Centro Cultural Isidro Falabella, Mexico City, México
    Date: 1996

    press clipping

    Limpia: en el arca hay sitio para todos, installation, 350x530cm, 1996

  • Hogar dulce hogar

    La Panadería, México
    08.1995

    Title: Juego de alfombras para sala
    Exhibition: Hogar dulce hogar
    Artists: Rodrigo Aldana, Marisa Cornejo, Miguel Calderón and Saúl Villa
    Curated by: Rodrigo Aldana
    Venue: La Panadería, México, Mexico
    Date: August 1995

    Video, photography and installation come together in this show to create a home-like environment. Each artist is assigned a space with a social function and meaning to be used in their piece. Four rugs, each in the shape of a human figure -a Playboy pinup, Spiderman, etc- strategically placed by Marisa Cornejo, create an environment that makes evident the masculine-feminine hierarchies within the home. Miguel Calderón decorates the family room with a wall-sized photomural, two comfortable poufs and two televisions showing the artist’s video work. Saúl Villa decorates the master bedroom -which includes instructions on how to use the bed-. Finally, lighting for the whole space is the work of Rodrigo Aldana, who creates a warm environment for each piece, as well as a text since each lamp includes a short passage on the different artists.

    El video, la fotografía y la instalación se conjuntan en esta exposición con la intención de recrear un ambienteshogareño. A cada artista le es asignado un espacio cuyas funciones y significados sociales tienen que ser utilizados para realizar su pieza. Cuatro alfombras, cada una en forma de silueta humana -chica playboy, Spiderman, etcétera- son colocadas estratégicamente por Marisa Cornejo para crear un ambiente de posiciones y rangos masculino-femenino dentro del hogar; el cuarto de televisión decorado con un fotomural, dos cómados puffs y dos televisiones con sus respectivos videos, obra de Miguel Calderón; la recámara principal -dotada de un instructivo para usar la cama- a cargo de Saúl Villa; y finalmente, la iluminación de los espacios a cargo de Rodrigo Aldana, crea una atmósfera envolvente para cada pieza con luz y texto, ya que cada lámpara contiene un pensamiento alusivo al artista cuya pieza iluminaba.

    Invitation card
    Catalogue
    Essay

  • Cronologías

    Temístocles 44, México
    08.12.1994

    Artists: Marisa Cornejo, Terence Gower, Cameron Jamie, Marco Arce, Demián Ortega and Jeffrey Vallance
    Curated by: Pablo Vargas Lugo
    Venue: Temístocles 44, Temístocles 44, Polanco, México D.F.
    Date: 08.12.1994

    Review
    Works
    Print

  • La victíma, 1994

    Melanie Smith’s workshop, México
    1994

    Title: La víctima
    Exhibition: Instalaciones
    Artists: Marisa Cornejo, Jonathan Hernández, etc. — students of the drawing course of José Miguel Gonzalez Casanova
    Venue: Melanie Smith’s workshop, Licenciado Verdad 11, Centro Histórico, Mexico, Mexico
    Date: 1994

    La víctima, installation, Licenciado Verdad, Centro Histórico, Mexico, 1994
    La víctima, installation, Licenciado Verdad 11, Centro Histórico, Mexico, 1994

  • Exposición Inaugural, La Panadería

    La Panadería, México
    16.06.1994

    Title: Exposición Inaugural, La Panadería
    Artists: Marisa Cornejo, Jorge Dorantes, Jonathan Hernández, Joshua Okón, Fernando Ortega, Xavier Rodriguez, Abraham Zacarías and Livma Zacarías
    Venue: La Panadería, Ozuluama 14, Condesa, DF, México
    Date: 16.06.1994

    La Panadería abre sus puertas con una exposición colectiva de ocho artistas, quienes a través de piezas, instalaciones y performances construyen un lenguaje metafórico, el cual, además de transmitir significado, fragmenta los códigos de comunicación cotidianos. Así, Jorge Dorantes y Abraham Zacarías convierten el acto de leer en una repetición de sonidos alejados de su función original. Marisa Cornejo plasma con tonos sanguíneos algunos paisajes chilenos utilizando como lienzo una toalla higiénica. Una carriola suspendida, obra de Fernando Ortega, el viejo horno que ilumina los objetos exteriores, de Jonathan Hernández, la instalación de cuatro paredes enchiladas de Yoshua Okón y las obras de Livma Zacarías y Xavier Rodríguez completan esta primera exhibición.

    La Panadería opens its doors with a collective show featuring eight artists whi construct a metaphoric language through art objects, installations and performance with which they not only transmit meaning, but also fragment everyday communication codes. In this way, Jorge Dorantes and Abraham Zacarías transform the act of reading into a reiteration of sounds that leads away from its original function.Marisa Cornejo shapes Chilean landscapes in bloody tones, using a feminine pad as a canvas. Fernando Ortega presents a suspended baby carriage; an ancient oven that sheds lights’on exterior objects is Jonathan Hernández’ contribution; the four chili-powder wall installation is by Yoshua Okón. Works by Livma Zacarías and Xavier Rodríguez complete this first lineup. 

    Documentation
    Inner landscapes, oil on sanitary paths, 19x33cm, 1994