Biography
Elisabeth Scherffig was born in Düsseldorf in 1949 and is based in Milan since 1971. In her work she has always observed the urban space, seen as an organism undergoing continuous mutations. Exploring these transformations, she created series of drawings – some in monumental scale – depicting construction sites, demolitions, architectural ruins and industrial debris.
In recent years she has made impressions of the urban sole decomposing them in transparent structures or installations using heterogenous materials such as silk, porcelain and steel. The recent group of works on maps is the result of a study of the territory and by overlapping various visual layers, describe the fusion between the history and memory found in the city.
The publication Nelle Città, a Colpo di Fulmine edition from 2017, with texts by Angela Madesani and Francesco Tedeschi accompanies this group of works.
Another series started in 2012 and still current concerns quarries. This study (using drawing, porcelain, print making and photography) concentrates on the same observation of the modification and transformation of the territory.
In 2009 publisher Baldini Castoldi Dalai dedicated the monograph Urbs et Civitas to her, curated by Angela Madesani, including texts by Gillo Dorfles, Angela Madesani and Antonello Negri.
Her work has been shown in numerous galleries and important public institutions as well as in private collections, both in Europe and in the USA.
Nationality