Black Maritxu (Arrieta, Bizkaia). 16.09.2023 / 17.09.2023
Ainhoa Akutain, Amaia Gracia Azqueta, Amaia Molinet, Claudia Rebeca Lorenzo, Equipo Jeleton, Inés García, Irati Retolaza, Izaro Ieregi, Mabi Revuelta, Maider Aldasoro, Miren Barrena, Paula Huarte, Saioa Olmo, Usoa Fullaondo, Zaloa Ipiña.
Curated by Jasone Miranda-Bilbao.
Lurrak zerua izan nahi duk / The ground wants to be sky. View of the exhibition at Black Maritxu
The idea of this exhibition came up during the exhibition Two moons that happened at the Mazecollective Studio Terrace (New Delhi) in November 2022 and which took its inspiration from the scifi novel ´Solaris´ (1961) by polish writer Stanislaw Lem, where the protagonist, Kevin, travels to an imaginary planet that has two moons.
Two moons sends an echo toward Black Maritxu and The ground wants to be sky responds with the superimposition by mirroring of the art works and the landscape of Arrieta. The exhibition includes new works and works made previously. Their background appears to disguise itself as sky.
The conceptual sky of the exhibition makes reference to the known sky that illuminates the works. In the real world, the sky is more of a conceptual construct than an actual object, a way of referring to everything that is above earth. Visually it appears the way it does because light streams down from the sun and hits particles of air, water vapour and dust becoming scattered resulting in the colour blue. This process re-dimensions the blue material of the platform that frames the works. Under the infinite and receding sky above us, nothing can be touched, but it can be approached by mimicry in terms of its appearance.
Black Maritxu is an ongoing project that presents the work of artists in the open air.
Left to right Usoa Fullaondo, Paula Huarte, Saioa Olmo, Amaia Molinet
Left, Irati Retolaza, Amaia Molinet, Saioa Olmo Right, Saioa Olmo. Seres-susurro (Beings-whisper). 2023. Book plants and recordings of whispers. Each plant set 50x50cm
Left, Saioa Olmo, Amaia Molinet Right, Amaia Molinet. Sin título (Untitled). 2015-2022. Unfired clay bricks with carvings. Dimensions variable
Paula Huarte. Lobelia, 2023. Enamelled ceramic. 30 x 32 x 16 cm
Usoa Fullaondo. Oh, I notice you baby. 2023. Cross stitch on linen. Each panel 77x77 cm
Irati Retolaza. I want but I loose. 2023. Refractive clay and enamel. 26x12x11 cm
Left to right, Saioa Olmo, Amaia Molinet, Irati Retolaza, Zaloa Ipiña
Zaloa Ipiña. Hizkuntza dut lurra (Language is my land). 2023. Soil, natural pigments, plaster sculptures.
Dimensions variable.
Language cannot be understood outside nature, it is born from earth, from the particular ways in which society understands and relates to its natural environment. It is no coincidence that many original languages have words for nature that indicate their relationship with it, such as for example Amalur (in the Basque language, euskera) o Kintzekàn Katiyatne (tutunakù) that literally mean ´Mother Earth´. I believe we must transit through earth protecting it, strengthening all its richness and strands: natural, cultural, linguistic…
Left to right, Amaia Molinet, Mabi Revuelta, Irati Retolaza, Zaloa Ipiña
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Mabi Revuelta. Preludio a un mondo che vede nascere le cose (Prelude to a world that sees the birth of things). 2023. Top still of the work at Black Maritxu. Below, video stills. 4K, stereo sound. 1:16 min
´This is the beginning of a audio-visual piece by Mabi Revuelta made between November 2022 and September 2023. During this time the artist has documented her stay at the Spanish Academy in Rome in the shape of short videos that are chained together forming a consciousness of a present that links the past and the future. A portrait of a world that witnesses how things came and go, how they are born and disappear, even though they are marvellous.´ Mabi Revuelta
Left to right, Mabi Revuelta, Zaloa Ipiña, Amaia Molinet, Maider Aldasoro, Claudia Lorenzo
Left to right, Amaia Moinet, Maider Aldasoro, Claudia Rebeca Lorenzo, Ainhoa Akutain, Izaro Ieregi
Maider Aldasoro. Ajuares (Trousseaus). 2022. Iron tubing. Approximately 100x100x100
Left to right, Inés Garcia, Izaro Ieregi, Ainhoa Akutain, Claudia Rebeca Lorenzo, Maider Aldasoro
Claudia Rebeca Lorenzo. Sculpture installation that includes 5 pieces. Cellophane and epoxy resin. Each 3238x31cm
´In the summer of 2021, I did the exhibition “be tender mother fucker” at a private state. As a starting point, I took some elements from my previous practices and some from new practices that were starting to emerge. Using the head and bust and the idea of variation, I made a series of works that played around these concepts and materialised in specific gestures. These gestures consisted of using always the same shapes - moulds of a mannequin´s head and balls, working in layers, arriving at different combinations between the two.
Left to right, Claudia Rebeca Lorenzo, Ainhoa Akutain, Izaro Ieregi, Miren Barrena, Inés Garcia
Ainhoa Akutain. Sin título (Untitled). 2018. Digital photograph. 112 x 74 cm
´This photograph, apparently innocent, of the Pan-American stadium in Havana (1991) had to be taken furtively to avoid losing the camera to the authorities, as it happened a few days earlier when the artist attempted the same. She hadn’t even managed to get inside the Stadium. She realized then that this image only achieves its importance on the scene: "It does, being.´ Ainhoa Akutain
Izaro Ieregi. The neights. 2023. Sound work in collaboration with Camilo Tonon. Duración 4:43 min
Left to right, Equipo Jeleton, Inés Garcia, Miren Barrena, Izaro Ieregi, Ainhoa Akutain,
Claudia Rebeca Lorenzo
Inés García. SLIDE#5, 2023. Impression on mirror PET, translucid panel 150x240 cm
Left to right, Miren Barrena, Izaro Ieregi, Ainhoa Akutain, Claudia Rebeca Lorenzo
Miren Barrena. Kulero (Bum). 2023. Fabric, wire, polyester resin
Left to right, Amaia Gracia Azqueta, Equipo Jeleton, Inès Garcia
Equipo Jeleton. Coalition politics at the turn of the Century - Bernice Johnson Reagon. 2019.
Embroidery and colour pencil on a cotton pillow cover. 98 x 88 cm
This embroidery gathers wise words from Bernice Johnson Reagon and joins them with layers of labour time and salvage cotton recovered from materials that resist oblivion.
Left to right, Equipo Jeleton, Amaia Gracia Azqueta
Amaia Gracia Azqueta. Desde ahora en adelante (Since now onward). 2019-2023.
Digital impresión on polyester and resin. Dimensions variable
Lurrak zerua izan nahi duk / The ground wants to be sky. View of the exhibition at Black Maritxu