Interview: Piera Zürcher
Luca Curci talks with Piera Zürcher during BARCELONA CONTEMPORARY – 3RD EDITION, at Valid World Hall Gallery.

“Swiss artist painter and designer. I was born in Vacallo, in Canton Ticino, Switzerland, on the border with Italy, which makes me conscious of the other, equal and diverse at the same time. Since 2018, I work in my atelier at SILOS Contentor Criativo in Caldas da Rainha, Portugal”.

Luca Curci – What is art for you?
Piera Zürcher – I can say that for me it is the expression of my soul.

LC – How did you get to your current artistic practice?
PZ – I come from a background where drawing is fundamental. I studied in an Academy of Fine Arts and I followed the courses of the Nude school at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière. I worked for 15 years as a design assistant in an architecture studio. I worked for 6 years as a design creator for textile crafts. This led me to deepen drawing, to see its importance not only in art but in many activities. Drawing is for me the starting point of my work. The other part is the color that expresses my emotions and my soul.

LC – How is being an artist nowadays
PZ – Very difficult. There are many who want to take advantage of the artist’s natural creativity and few who support him.

LC – How do you choose your subjects? Is it a reasoned or an instinctive process?
PZ – I like to work by themes. It allows me to deepen what I want to say. More than reasoned or instinctive, my choice corresponds to that theme that allows me to express my human, cultural and spiritual journey.

LC – Do you use art to express something in particular? Is it your medium of expression?
PZ – Painting is the means to express the path of my human essence.

LC – What is the message linked to the artwork you have shown in this exhibition? How is it connected to the theme of the entire festival?
PZ – I presented two paintings of the mountain and it is developed as an interior landscape, as is the landscape in the history of art. It is linked to the landscape theme of the section in which I exhibited.