Programme 2023–24

In October 2023, the museum opened Land of Friends, an exhibition by Colombian artist Carolina Caycedo (London, 1978) that brings together a vast body of work focused on her research into social movements and community organisations opposing the construction of energy infrastructures, including large hydroelectric projects in various parts of the world. Land of Friends is the first European survey of Carolina Caycedo’s work, a co-production between the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art; Artium Museoa, Museum of Contemporary Art of the Basque Country, and the Institut Valencià d’Art Modern (IVAM). The exhibition is curated by Catalina Lozano (Chief Curator, Artium Museoa).

Currently screening the film Sonnet of Vermin by Mexican artist Naomi Rincón Gallardo (Raleigh, 1979), the Z Gallery exhibition series will present from January 2024 a film by Moroccan artist Randa Maroufi (Casablanca, 1987), Bab Sebta (Ceuta’s Gate) which explores the land crossing between Morocco and Spain and the negotiations that take place there on a daily basis. The Z Gallery programme explores the field of moving images in the museum space.

On February 2, 2024, the museum presents edonor denok inor ez. Institutionalisation Processes of Art Education in the Basque Country, 1978-1991. The show emphasises the moment when the Bilbao Higher School of Fine Arts became a Faculty and was integrated into the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) in 1978. It also highlights the demands of students who were calling for a form of teaching that was less marked by academic models, as well as the demands of other Basque artists who requested more direct involvement, initially in the school and later in the public university. edonor denok inor ez (Anybody Everybody Nobody) is curated by Mikel Onandia, Sergio Rubira and Leire Vergara.

On April 26, two new projects will open to the public. On the one hand, the museum presents Partial View, an exhibition by Ibon Aranberri (Itziar-Deba, Gipuzkoa, 1969) which assembles a selection of works spanning from the 1990s to the present-day that mostly deal with his constant interest in resignification through the political actions of places, either natural or human-made, whose social consideration has gradually diminished and have been transformed. The exhibition in the Basque Country unfolds into a new display, a selection of the Basque artist’s significant works, and it is the second instalment of an exhibition that can be currently visited at MNCARS until March 2024. Partial View is curated by Manuel Borja-Villel and Beatriz Herráez (Director, Artium Museoa) and organised in collaboration with the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía.

On the other hand, Artium Museoa presents UNFORM by Patricia Dauder (Barcelona, 1973), an exhibition that gathers sculptures, drawings, installations and films which together explore Dauder’s interest in tracing disappearances, affective moments that leave often almost imperceptible traces, but also the passage of time through accumulation and erasure. Often using found objects, Dauder’s work evokes the potential stories sheltered in domestic spaces that are rapidly being scattered through the often-brutal urban development of Barcelona. UNFORM is curated by Catalina Lozano.

The year 2024 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of two of the most significant Basque artists of the 20th century: Néstor Basterretxea (Bermeo, 1924–Hondarribia, 2014) and Eduardo Chillida (Donostia/San Sebastian, 1924–2002). Artium Museoa will dedicate exhibitions to both artists.

In the case of the polymath Néstor Basterretxea, the museum will explore his legacy in the field of film after receiving the donation of the artist’s archive from his family. This exploration will focus on renowned films such as Operación H as well as projects that were left incomplete or that were never made but of which there remains ample documentation. The exhibition will open in May, coinciding with the artist’s birth. As part of this project, the museum will present the cataloguing of more than 5,000 documents carried out by the Documentation Centre that will be accessible to researchers and the museum’s public, including letters, manuscripts, drawings and sketches, brochures, publication photographs and project blueprints, among other materials. The project is directed by Elena Roseras, Head of the Documentation Centre at Artium Museoa.

The exhibition dedicated to Eduardo Chillida, Chillida. Usos aplicados (Chillida. Applied Uses) presents his facet as an illustrator and maker of two-dimensional shapes and icons, whether within the framework of his own exhibitions or as commissions made for both public and private organisations and institutions. It explores the expanded universe of Chillidian silhouettes and stresses his relationships with graphic design, poster-making, textile arts, ceramics or jewellery, with the object-related notion of by-product and so-called “corporate identity”. The exhibition is curated by Peio Aguirre.

In the autumn, Belgian artist Jöelle Tuerlinckx (Brussels, 1958) will transform the exhibition space to explore the interstices and inner workings of the institution, using both memory and automatisation as a means to investigate the space and the relations that take place within it. It is the first exhibition of the artist in the Basque Country and is curated by Beatriz Herráez and Catalina Lozano.

Press and contact
Anton Bilbao, Communications Manager: T +34 945209026