Selected Works – Marisa Cornejo Studio

Home is where we start from

Maison Tavel, MAH, Genève
20.02.– 31.08.2025

Title: Home is where we start from
With: Marina Abramović, Clara Alloing, Anna Barseghian, Marie José Burki, Marisa Cornejo, Fabiana de Barros, Anjesa Dellova, Silvina Der-Meguerditchian, Elena El Asmar, Ekene Emeka-Maduka, Kantarama Gahigiri, Margherita Giust i & Selinna Ajamikoko, Mona Hatoum, Vanna Karamaounas, Varduhi Khachatryan, Kimsooja, Elisabeth Llach, Keiko Machida, Shirin Neshat, Rosana Palazyan, Maria-Carmen Perlingeiro, Mai-Thu Perret, Carmen Perrin, Alexandra Roussopoulos, Davide-Christ elle Sanvee, Iris Sara Schiller, Zineb Sedira, Maria Tsagkari, Vivianne van Singer.
Curated by: Adelina von Füstenberg
Venue: Maison Tavel, MAH, Genève
Dates: 20.02.– 31.08.2025

Home is where we start from is a contemporary art project that begins in the Canton of Geneva to celebrate the voices of women artists when they are confronted with intercultural priorities and the impact of migration. The project aims to highlight the inherent singularities in the artistic creation of women, shaped by their identity and culture, inherited from the first, second, and sometimes even the third generation of immigrants.

The project will delve into the memories of lost, abandoned, or reshaped identities, exploring notions of separation, displacement, survival, and rebirth, themes deeply rooted in the experiences of female immigrant artists as they find a new home. This newfound home becomes the space where creativity can once again express itself. The question of place holds fundamental importance in the transmission of culture, encompassing both the spiritual dimension, ideas, daydreams, and the physical locations that facilitate these cultural exchanges.

Overall, Home is where we start from not only celebrates women artists’ resilience and creativity but also underscores the continuous interconnection and influence of diverse cultures in each other. It addresses significant societal themes, such as the impacts of migration on development and the importance of cultural exchange, making it a timely and relevant exhibition that prompts reflection and understanding.

Adelina von Fürstenberg, ART for The World, Geneva

Webpage

Press release

Invitation card

Room sheet
Wonderbooks Parade

La Muette – Espaces littéraires, Pully
13.06.2025, 7.30 pm

Collective action: Wonderbooks Parade
With: Frédéric Clot, Jérôme Stettler, Lorna Bornand, Cristina Da Silva, Nicolas Fournier, Stéphanie Pfister, Claudia Renna, Claude-Hubert Tatot, Daniel Ruggiero, Pauline Ammann, Emmanuel Wüthrich, Alain Huck, Anaëlle Clot, Thomas Schunke, Amina Jendly, Pascale Favre, Pierre-Philippe Freymond, Florence Vuilleumier, Delphine Reist, Débora Beuret-Strambini, Naomi Del Vecchio, Pierre Bonard, Marisa Cornejo, Sylvie Mermoud, Virginie Otth, Aymeric Vergnon-d’Alançon, Marie-France Martin, David Curchod, Philippe Fretz, Nicolas Geiser, Nicolas Pahlisch, Barbara Cardinale, Muma Soler, Keiko Machida, Liliana Gassiot, Alexia Turlin, Christian Pellet, Patricia Glave, Céline Masson, Giancarlo Mino.
Curated by: art&fiction, éditions d’artistes
Exhibition: Wonderbooks, 25 ans des éditions art&fiction
Venue: La Muette – Espaces littéraires, Pully
Date: 13.06.2025, 7.30 pm

Webpage
Me vuelvo un Guñelve

Helmhaus, Zürich
09.06.2025, 4pm

Title: Me vuelvo un Guñelve
By: Marisa Cornejo
Assisted by: Stéphane Fretz
Curated by: Nathalie Killias and Cristiana Contu
Technical support: Sarai Aron
Sound: Simon Risi
Exhibition: Passato Presente
Venue: Helmhaus, Limmatquai 31, 8001 Zürich
Date: 09.06.2025, 4pm

This performance by the artist Marisa Cornejo is based on a dream in which she metamorphoses into a Guñelve. The Guñelve is an eight- pointed star that symbolises the dawn.
During this performance, Marisa is momentarily blinded by the light of a slide projector—an imposed blindness that leads her to search within her memories. In that moment, she feels like a membrane of history, determined not to let go of certain values: solidarity among workers, freedom fighters like Ahmed Ben Bella, and her humble grandfather Crisólogo Gatica, a Chilean communist who never uses his political convictions to seize power for himself.
The audience witnesses Marisa become a channel in an attempt to bring the past into the present.

Booklet

Webpage

flyer

Passato Presente
Mal Terreno
Helmhaus, Zürich
22.05.2025, 7 pm

Title: Mal Terreno
By: Marisa Cornejo
Curated by: Nathalie Killias and Cristiana Contu
Interpretation from Spanish into German by: Maricruz Peñaloza
Exhibition: Passato Presente
Venue: Helmhaus, Limmatquai 31, 8001 Zürich
Date: 22.05.2025, 6.30 pm

Mal Terreno a été improvisé lorsque tout le Kreis 1 de Zurich a subi une coupure de courant généralisée à l’heure prévue de la performance Me vuelvo un guñelve. Ce moment a donné lieu à une conférence/performance basée sur une expérience et un texte intitulé Mal Terreno, consistant en un récit d’un séjour à Varsovie en octobre 2023 dans le cadre d’un workshop avec des artistes confrontés aux violences d’État, alors que circulaient les premières images de l’opération Épées de fer, menée par Israël dans la bande de Gaza.
À ce récit se mêlaient des évocations du grand-père de l’artiste, Crisológo Gatica, militant communiste chilien ayant arpenté l’Europe de la Guerre froide afin de construire une coopération transnationale.
Faisait également partie de la performance le contenu d’un sac de voyage contenant quilts, bijoux et pelotes de laine, utilisés comme objets de dialogue transgénérationnel et d’empouvoirement.
Le récit en espagnol a été interprété en allemand par Maricruz Peñaloza et a été suivi d’une conversation. Le courant a été rétabli trois minutes après la fin de la performance.

Mal Terreno was improvised when the entire Kreis 1 district of Zurich experienced a major power outage at the scheduled time of the performance Me vuelvo un guñelve.
This unexpected moment gave rise to a lecture-performance based on an experience and a text entitled Mal Terreno, recounting a stay in Warsaw in October 2023 during a workshop with artists facing state violence, at a time when the first images of Israel’s Operation Iron Swords in the Gaza Strip were beginning to circulate.
The narrative intertwined with memories of the artist’s grandfather, Crisológo Gatica, a Chilean communist activist who frequently traveled to Cold War–era Europe to foster transnational cooperation.
The performance also featured the contents of a travel bag—quilts, jewelry, and balls of yarn—used as objects of transgenerational dialogue and empowerment.
The Spanish narrative was interpreted into German by Maricruz Peñaloza and was followed by a conversation. Power was restored three minutes after the end of the performance.

Passato Presente

Invitation card

Helmhaus
Passato Presente

Helmhaus, Zürich
11.04–09.06.2025

Title: Passato Presente
With: Marisa Cornejo, Pascale Eiberle, Esther Ernst,
Mark Formanek, Michel Gilgen, Johanna Müller,
Jos Näpflin, Lea Schaffner, Jonathan Steiger, Sabine Troendle,
Franz Wanner, Olivia Wiederkehr, Uwe Wittwer
Curated by: Nathalie Killias and Cristiana Contu
Venue: Helmhaus, Limmatquai 31, 8001 Zürich
Dates: 11.04–09.06.2025

An exhibition that seeks the past in the present

The past cleaves to the present, as the title of this exhibition describes: [il] passato [è] presente.As Augustine of Hippo remarked 1500 years ago, there is no past as such, only ‘a present of things past’ as perceived by the mind. The past accompanies us as memory, because according to Novalis ‘all remembrance is the present’.

Memories can be vivid or fleeting, enduring or ephemeral, painful or imagined. Our lives are shaped by personal experience, but also by events that have entered the collective memory. The works by thirteen artists exhibited here sound out both the scope and the limits of remembrance. They address those traumatic experiences that sear our souls like sheets of paper. They define the whiff of suffering that surrounds us like an invisible veil, or they visualise the simultaneity of absence and presence. Even the yearning for the ‘good old days’ and for nostalgia itself is here reworked as art.

The exhibition is an invitation to ponder the many different ways in which we preserve the past – or detach ourselves from it.

Webpage

Press release

Invitation card

Performance 1

Room sheet
Sintiendo las dos lunas (Feminist community relations)

Swiss Arts Awards, Messe Basel
11–16.06.2024

Title: Sintiendo las dos lunas (Feminist community relations)
Curated by: Danniel Tostes
Special thanks to: Stéphane Fretz, Nora Gatica Krug, Léa Fluck, Sabine Leuthold, Sara Mayenfisch, Selma Meuli, Leandra Zumbühl
Jury SAA 2024: Raffael Dörig, Victoria Easton, Tobias Kaspar, Roman Kurzmeyer, Mai-Thu Perret, Nicole Schweizer and Una Szeemann
Venue: Swiss Arts Awards, Messe Basel, Halle 1.1, Basel
Dates: 11–16.06.2024

swissartawards.ch

The Swiss Art Competition, held annually since 1899, is the world’s oldest art award. The accompanying Swiss Art Awards exhibition, which is organised by the Swiss Federal Office of Culture, offers an insight into current art and architecture in Switzerland and is a valuable reference for art professionals and art lovers. The jury of the Swiss Art Awards consists of seven members of the Federal Art Commission, selected by the Federal Council, as well as five invited experts.

Swiss Art Awards 2024
Team: Léa Fluck, Sabine Leuthold, Sara Mayenfisch, Selma Meuli, Leandra Zumbühl
Special thanks to : Danniel Tostes, Stéphane Fretz, Nora Gatica Krug and MCStudio

Catalog

Invitation card

Room sheet
Love Demonstrations

Lovay Fine Arts, Geneva
16.05.2024

Title: Love Demonstrations. A counterperformance
Artist: Marisa Cornejo
Duration: 60 min.
Curated by: Danniel Tostes
Photos: Dorothée Thébert
Venue: Lovay Fine Arts, Geneva
Date: 16.05.2024

Manifesto:
«I only accept love.»

Am I sleeping or resting? Interaction, receiving peaceful manifestations of love.
How can we share our love of the body?
We don’t accept more violence.
Sowing hearts on the dress? Playing my playlist—not too loudly—the one I use to draw my dreams?
I only accept love.

Invitation card

Poster

Manifesto

©Dorothée Thébert
High and Fragile

Lovay Fine Arts, Geneva
05.04.–25.05.2024

Title: High and Fragile
Curator: Danniel Tostes
Venue: Lovay Fine Arts, Geneva
Dates: 05.04.–25.05.2024

We are happy to invite you to the opening of High and Fragile by Marisa Cornejo. Guest curator Danniel Tostes has selected a series of paintings on paper depicting the artist’s highly detailed dreams. Surrealist landscapes show us various migration experiences, as well as her own physical, mental, and emotional trajectory. For over 30 years, Cornejo has been giving form to her nocturnal visions, as a personal diary. She is inspired by the Mapuche and Mexican indigenous traditions in which remembering one’s dreams can become a guide for our daily life. From then onwards, she has modified her feminist practice using oneiric storytelling as the very core of her artistic creation, interrogating and giving voice to her body as an archive.

Website

Invitation flyer

Performance

© Claude Cortinovis
Huellas
Le Commun, Genève
23.08–15.09.2023

Exhibition: No memorials. Histoires matérielles de l’exil chilien à Genève
Curated by: Cristóbal F. Barria Bignotti
Assistant: Anna Tretiakova
Technical support: Fred Duchêne, Stefania Saladino, Cristina Da Silva.
Production design: Stéphane Fretz, Olaf Berkhuijsen, Thomas Kasterine et Zacharie Fretz
Special thanks: Stéphanie Prizreni, Edgar Soarès, Maël Denegri
Venue: Le Commun, Genève, Suisse
Dates: 23 août – 15 septembre 2023

L’installation vidéo «La Huella» est la compilation d’une série de performances que j’ai réalisées et documentées pendant cinq ans dans différents territoires liés à la mémoire de mon exil. Chaque performance a suivi la méthodologie de réalisation que j’ai tirée de mes rêves pour définir ma pratique artistique.
La documentation des performances contient non seulement l’expérience de la réactivation de l’archive artistique que j’ai héritée de mon père dans les lieux de mémoire de notre exil, mais aussi la résonance de cette archive dans les personnes qui m’ont accompagné dans ce processus de dé-traumatisation.
Des personnes qui faisaient souvent partie des associations de victimes de la dictature militaire de Pinochet, des amis de mon enfance en exil ou des collaborateurs solidaires qui ont vu dans mon travail une possibilité de réparer les dommages causés par la dictature. Pour la commémoration du 50e anniversaire du coup d’État militaire au Chili qui a touché tant de consciences dans le monde, je veux clore ce cycle de travail en réalisant une installation qui rassemble ce travail expérimental et rituel pour rendre visibles les fissures et les dommages qui sont encore présents dans le présent et les possibilités de solidarité qui nous permettent de ne pas l’oublier.

Video

Room sheet
La niña de sus ojos

The Gallatin Galleries, New York
11.09.2023

Title: La niña de sus ojos
Artist: Marisa Cornejo
Genre: Slide show
Duration: 30 min.
Curated by: Keith Miller
Assisted by: Stéphane Fretz
Venue: The Gallatin Galleries, 1, Washington Place, New York 10003
Date: 11.09.2023
Support: Pro Helvetia

As a child, I often attended the slide projection sessions my parents organized for their friends and acquaintances in the various places where we lived in exile—our apartment block in Bulgaria, our social housing in Ghlin, and later in Puebla. It was a way for them to make friends, to talk about who they were and what they loved. […] Sitting through the projections, I saw and heard all of it, and it made me dream: it was paradise lost. I could feel the melancholy emanating from those ruins left behind by conquest. This lost world, in fragments, came back to life before my eyes through the slides and my father’s stories, through the records of Los Jairas that served as the soundtrack for those sessions. Violeta Parra and an entire generation of artists found in this melancholy the inspiration to bring something back to life—by creating, through music, images, and collected objects, an encyclopedia of Andean vernacular culture. A living archive.

Exhibition

photos © Brad DeCecco.