Marisa Maza
Spring 2006
Maza is an internationally renowned visual artist who works in the field of
video and photography. She holds an M.A. in Fine Arts from the Facultad de
Bellas Artes at the Complutense University Madrid (1988) and completed her
postgraduate studies in the field of Fine Arts and Media Studies at the Fine
Arts University of Berlin (Hochschule der Künste Berlin, 1999).
Before coming to the University of Florida, Maza taught and worked at the Fine Arts University of Berlin where she also was selected for a Mentoring Professorship program under the supervision of Prof. Katharina Sieverding. Maza is the recipient of numerous grants and prizes including the studio prize of the Karl Hofer Society (2005) as well as a stipend for artistic research in South Africa, Tanzania and New York by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD-NaFöG).
Since the early 90s, questions of the concept of identity and identity politics, as well as its medial, cultural, social, and political representation are the focus of Marisa Maza’s artistic work. Specifically the human body and typologies of real, fictional and/or simulated (urban) landscapes are thematized as (metaphorical) systems for the inscription of sociopolitical conditions.
In general Maza’s specific and conscious use of the forms of video installation and photography is a critical reflection on the limits of formats of media representation, art-historically relevant image production such as painting, as well as the production, distribution and reception of mass-media images.