Marlise Ilhesca is a journalist. She has worked for the most important newspapers in Brazil, such as Folha and Jornal do Brasil, as well as Público of Portugal. She was posted in Paris, London, Geneva, and Caracas, where she chaired the Foreign Press Association. She was also correspondent for the BBC and directed television programmes on the Brazilian TV channels Machete, TV Educativa, and Radiobrás.
She has been involved in the field of culture, producing non-commercial exhibitions, such as Miles Davis (co-production with the Cité de la Musique); Punk Aesthetics (co-production with the Festival d'Arles in France); Graphic Work by Antonio Berni and Arte Américas (which brought together 100 artists from 63 of countries) and Argentina Today (a platform for promoting the work of young Argentine artists and curators).
In 2015 she was on the jury of the Andreani Foundation's Arts Prize, in 2017 for the Otazu Prize in Spain, and in 2021 for the Guerlain Foundation's Guerlain Prize dedicated to artists and cartoonists from all over the world. She is part of the selection team of galleries for the Swab Fair in Barcelona and the International Committee of ArteBa. She is the International Coordinator of Bienalsur – International Biennial of Contemporary Art of the South.
In France, she fostered the creation of the Latin American Committee of the Centre Pompidou, of which she is a patron, having donated important works so that Argentine art would be represented in that collection.
She is a member of the board of trustees of the Museo Reina Sofía Foundation of Vivre in Couleurs, the collectors' programme of the Fondation Cartier, and the committee of experts of the French foundations Chirac and Culture et Diversité for the selection of the prize awarded to cultural initiatives in international conflict zones.
She is a board member of the Alliance Française of Buenos Aires and of the Latin American Committee of Open Democracy.
