Marisa Cortese

'in the meantime our culture of using and throwing away has affected our civilisation.'

During her own symposium in 2002 in Italy, Cortese was already engaged with recycling. To her it is an answer to the consumer society. She feels that the culture of using and throwing away is diseased and has had a negative affect on our civilisation. She believes that even friendships and people are being used and thrown away instead of nurtured. As an artist she is aware of this process. She feels that it is important to know how to look at your environment and how to recognize things of value in the mountain of waste.

Cortese's work is representative of female iconography: she uses a combination of paint and words together with jewellery, pearls, textile and lace. The words have a meaning of their own or get their meaning from the materials. When she works with furniture that is beyond repair, she almost gets the feeling of being a surgeon who is able to give the patient new life. She works with her whole body. 'The application of physical energy is essential in my art.'

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