Artist Statement
I have been, I am, and I will remain a migrant. Born in Argentina, raised in Canada, and now living in Norway, this label fits me, and I wear it with ease. It allows me to live at the intersection of several cultures—two, sometimes three—with their richness, paradoxes, and shadowed zones.
This condition brings me as much beauty as it does questioning. It involves adaptation, reflection, but also doubt and confusion. Cultural differences sometimes create a certain chaos in my thoughts, and it is precisely this chaos that I transpose into my artistic work.
Trained in architectural techniques, my practice has shifted toward the visual arts and mixed media: painting, photography, printmaking, and installation. I explore the tension between order and disorder, constraint and freedom, understanding and misunderstanding. These contradictions, experienced in my daily life, find resonance in my work.
As cultural theorist Stuart Hall expressed, identity is not a fixed or stable essence, but a narrative in constant construction. For the migrant, this narrative unfolds in multiple directions at once. My work is situated precisely within this shifting space: between cultures, codes, understandings and misunderstandings—where both tensions and possibilities emerge.
Through this process, I question our relationship to identity, to the Other, and to territory. My work seeks to show how, despite our differences, we share the same ground and the possibility of building bridges.
Bio
Silvia E. M.
Born in Argentina, she lived and studied in Canada from 1973 to 2001.
In 2001, She moved to Tromsø (Norway). Since 2003, she has been living in Tromso. She is also the founder of Prima Ink, an printmaking atelier. As a coordinator, she has participated in Tromsø Open (2011-2012). Her work have been exposed in Norway. Canada, Chile and France. Silvia lives in Tromsø and Montréal.