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"Katalepsis" de Nora Aurrekoetxea & Laura Ruiz Sáenz
"Katalepsis" de Nora Aurrekoetxea & Laura Ruiz Sáenz
(1) Non daude K.A.A.??? Komando Autonomo Antikapitalistak 1970. hamarkada bukaeran eta 1980ko hamarkada hasieran Euskal Autonomia Erkidegoan eta Nafarroan aritu
ziren erakunde armatuak izan ziren.
3
Willy Uriberen argazkiak zirela uste dut, ETAk atentatuak egindako lekuen
argazkiak egin zituen, ETAk hildako egun eta ordu berean uste dut, buruz ari
naiz, hala dakarkit memoriak, eta lekuen memoriaz ari zen, lekuek memoria
gordetzen dutela. Eta bai, izan liteke, beharbada lekuek baino ez dute gordetzen memoria, eta biharko arkeologoek esango dute zer gertatu zitzaigun,
baina orain presa daukagu, 41 urte, gainean daukat ahanztura.
Azkoitian jaio eta hazi nintzen, gazte denboran Atraskua genuen tabernarik
maiteena. Taberna atarian atentatua egin zion ETAk Joxe Txikiri 2, bala baten zuloa gordetzen du oraindik ere sarrerako zutoinak. Baina guk ez genion
arreta handirik jarri sekula zulo hari, bestelako kontuak genituen buruan,
normalean bala zuloa ez genuen ikusi ere egiten, ez genuen ezagutu Joxe
Txiki, kontatu digutena baino ez dakigu, axola ere ez asko, zerk mugitzen du
mundua, gorde dezakegu geurea ez den memoria?
Gorde daiteke norberarena (sentitzen) ez den memoria?
(2) Jose Larraaga Arenas, Joxe Txiki, konstruktorea, falangista, Movimientoko buruetakoa izana Gipuzkoan, 1984ko urtezahar egunean hil zuen azkenean ETAk, Alameda
tabernaren atarian, beste bi atentatutan huts egin ostean. Hilketa horren kronika, portzierto, agertzen da Willy Uriberen All donde ETA asesin liburuan (eta blogean: https://
allidonde.wordpress.com/2010/02/12/ultimo-atentado-del-ano/)
4
Memoria ere tximista gisara etorri ohi da sarri, eta ez hari batetik tiraka.
Usain batek haurtzarora eraman zaitzake zuzenean, hor zegoen nonbait
gordeta, baina ezin duzu zeuk nahi bezala eta zeuk nahi duzunean atera. Halatsu esango nuke lekuek ere: gorde bai, gordetzen dute memoria, nahi bada,
baina memoria hori gaurko bizitzaren azalera ekarriko duen usain, izen, argazki, hitz, tximistaren bat behar du.
Ikusten dituzu ETAk atentatuak egindako lekuen argazkiak, eta leku horiek
ez dute ezer berezitik, jendeak berdin jarraituko zuen hortik pasatzen, tabernara sartzen esan ohi denez, bizitzak aurrera jarraitzen du. Argazkilariak bihurtu ditu memoria pizteko gai, edo aitzakia, eta azalpena behar dute,
argazki oina, bestela, begiratu batera behintzat, edozein herritako edozein
kale bazter da, irudiak ez du esaten testuarekin esan nahi dena.
Duela urte batzuk, igandetako Berriak bazuen argazkiari eskainitako atal
berezi bat: erdi-erdiko bi orrialdeak hartzen zituen argazki batek, eta zutabe labur batean testua zetorren, argazkiari buruzkoa, edo argazkitik abiatua bederen. Urtebetez aritu nintzen langintza horretan, biziki atsegin nuen.
Astearte arratsaldez joaten nintzen Berriako erredakzio nagusira, Andoain
en, eta argazki agentziek bidalitako mila bat argazkiren artetik bat aukeratzen nuen lehendabizi, gero hari buruzko testua idazteko. Argazki oina zen
beti egiten zailena, horixe baita ideologiaren guda zelaia.
Barthes edo Benjaminen hitzak ekar nitzake hona, argazki oinari buruzkoak,
baina zertarako, ez dut autoritaterik behar.
Ordenagailuan ikusten nituen argazkiak, mundu zabaletik erredakziora
iritsiak, eta gero inprimatu egiten nituen azken hautaketarako modukoak
iritzitakoak, hamar bat inguru astero. Argazki horiek gordetzen joan nintzen,
asmo jakinik gabe, urtearen amaieran karpeta gizen bat osatu arte. Hitzaldi
bat emateko eskatu zidaten artea eta literaturari buruz, eta ariketa hauxe
egin nuen entzutera joan zirenekin: karpeta horretan gordetzen joan nintzen orrietako bana eman bakoitzari, eta argazkiak zer erakusten zuen esplikatu behar zuten, eta bukaeran argazki oina jarri.
Batekin akordatzen naiz ondo. Estatu Batuetako etxe tipiko bat zen, solairu
bakarrekoa, zabala, garajearekin, bere zelaitxoarekin atarian. Horixe besterik ez zuen erakusten argazkiak. Ez dakit zein argazki oin jarri zion entzuleak, agentziak bidalitakoa eman nion gero: auskalo zenbat pertsona garbitu
zituen serieko hiltzaile baten etxea zen.
Azalpenik gabe argazkia ez da ezer, azalpenik gabe argazkia argiaren egia
da, kamerak une jakin batean jaso duen argia besterik ez. Izan liteke edo
zein txaratako sasi arte bat, izan liteke edozein gorputzetako azal errea, izan
liteke aurpegi bat kamerari errezeloz begiratzen diona, izan liteke kalearen
erdian hilda datzan gorpu bat
Gure memoria zulo bat da. Gure memoria zulo beltz bat da.
Gure zulo beltza memoria da. Gure zuloa gure memoria da.
5
Esperando al relmpago
Xabier Gantzarain
La comprensin te llega de manera inesperada, tenan razn los estoicos, eligieron la palabra adecuada, katalepsis, no es algo para lo que te esfuerces y
te vuelvas a esforzar y que al final logres a duras penas, al menos no pasa
as normalmente, la mayora de las veces se parece a una epifana, algo pasa
inesperadamente, un accidente, puede que un infortunio, seguramente algo
que no deba haber pasado, y de repente lo ves claro y lo comprendes de
sbito; un relmpago ha cruzado tu cuerpo y de aqu en adelante ya no sers
el mismo.
Qu quedar del siglo que nos hizo, del mundo que nos hizo? A quin se lo
contaremos, cmo? Qu comprender?
Aqu no empleo el plural de forma mayesttica, sino para referirme a un colectivo, aunque sea cada vez ms difuso, para referirme tambin a una poca
y a un lugar.
Cmo explicar todo lo que significa esta pregunta que con tres signos de
interrogacin puede verse en una pared de Azpeitia: Non daude K.A.A.???1
De dnde ha de ser uno, de qu edad, para comprender esa pregunta?
Comprend muy tarde, a golpe de relmpago, por qu en algunos libros aparece la fecha de escritura al final del texto. Creo que se lo le a Albert Camus:
para comprender a una persona, hay que comprender su edad. Lo mismo
pasa con los textos: es necesario saber cundo se escribieron. Este texto
tambin necesita una fecha: Azpeitia, agosto del 2016.
Hace poco, los amigos y familiares de las vctimas hicieron una concentracin frente al juzgado de Donostia, pidiendo que no se archivase el caso de
la Emboscada de Pasaia. Dnde estn C.A.A.? En qu tipo de olvido?
Para comprender a una persona hay que comprender su edad: tengo 41 aos,
los cumpl en enero. Y este mismo ao, un relmpago me ha golpeado: tengo
41 aos, y mi mundo se ha perdido.
No es nostalgia, el pasado no fue mejor, no creo que sea la nostalgia lo que
lleve a una persona a escribir la pregunta Dnde estn C.A.A.? en una pared.
Es la necesidad de memoria. La ma, para m, la suya para cada uno, dira yo,
pero tambin la memoria de ese difuso nosotros, de una gente, de un lugar,
de una poca.
(1) Dnde estn C.A.A.??? Los Comandos Autnomos Anticapitalistas (CAA o en euskera
Komando Autonomo Antikapitalistak) fueron una serie de organizaciones armadas activas en
el Pas Vasco y Navarra durante el final de la dcada de 1970 y el principio de la de 1980.
11
Creo que las fotografas eran de Willy Uribe, hizo imgenes de los lugares
de los atentados de ETA, el mismo da y a la misma hora en la que ETA mat,
eso creo, lo estoy diciendo de memoria, as me lo dicta, y trataba sobre la
memoria de los lugares, deca que los lugares tienen memoria. Y s, puede
ser, puede que tan slo los lugares la tengan, y que los arquelogos del maana nos digan qu es lo que nos pas, pero ahora tenemos prisa, 41 aos, el
olvido est al acecho.
Nac y crec en Azkoitia, el bar que ms nos gustaba cuando ramos jvenes
era el Atraskua. ETA atent contra Joxe Txiki2 en la puerta de aquel bar, la
columna de la entrada an conserva el agujero de bala. Pero nosotros nunca le hicimos demasiado caso a aquel agujero, tenamos otros pjaros en la
cabeza, normalmente ni siquiera veamos el agujero, no habamos conocido
a Joxe Txiki, tan slo sabemos aquello que nos han contado, tampoco nos importaba demasiado; qu mueve el mundo, podemos guardar una memoria
que no sea la nuestra?
(2) Jose Larraaga Arenas, Joxe Txiki, constructor, falangista, uno de los lderes del
Movimiento en Gipuzkoa. ETA lo mat finalmente el da de Nochevieja de 1984, en la puerta del bar Alamenda, tras dos atentados fallidos. Por cierto, la crnica de ese asesinato
aparece en el libro de Willy Uribe All donde ETA asesin (y tambin en el blog: https://
allidonde.wordpress.com/2010/02/12/ultimo-atentado-del-ano/)
12
Pero, qu es ese imaginario, cul es? Son las huellas del conflicto? Y de
qu conflicto?
Un Ibon Aranberri, por ejemplo, en la obra Ethnics, plantea una estrategia
con ese mismo objetivo, es decir, qu hace que algo se convierta en huella
del conflicto? Toma la forma que se suele emplear para mostrar las armas y
dems brtulos confiscados a un grupo de criminales y, de ese modo, muestra objetos corrientes, pero todas esas cosas corrientes adquieren cierto
aire sospechoso.
El relmpago me ha golpeado nada ms escribir esa ltima frase: recuerdo
que, en un noticiario televisivo, el presentador anunci que haban detenido al comando Madrid, y que en las imgenes se mostraban todas las cosas
que les haban incautado, bien ordenaditas encima de una mesa, y que, entre
otras cosas, haba algn que otro libro de bolsillo de Anagrama.
Donald Kuspit considera que el caso de Euskal Herria es una revolucin tnica. Ibon Aranberri titul a esa obra Ethnics. Un gesto irnico, quizs?
Si nos paramos a pensarlo, la manera en la que la polica muestra aquellas
cosas que le ha incautado al enemigo es muy cientfica, muy unida a la modernidad: quiere ser neutra, universal, sin subjetividad, limitarse a nombrar,
clasificar y mostrar. Es muy parecida a la manera en la que los arquelogos
muestran sus piezas. Quizs Ibon Aranberri tambin rechace la modernidad?
En el arte vasco existen no pocas obras que pueden relacionarse de una u
otra manera con el conflicto, pero no s si alguien se ha dedicado a realizar
una reflexin esttica sobre las huellas del conflicto de una manera tan directa y cruda como Nora Aurrekoetxea y Laura Ruiz.
Quizs haca falta distancia.
Desde luego, no se puede decir que carezcan de optimismo: estn buscando
una situacin de catalepsis.
Sin embargo, en este momento, nuestra situacin me parece catatnica.
Quines somos? No lo s.
16
I)
primero
se ha de repetir una y otra vez
NON DA JON?
para que diez aos ms tarde
por casualidad
y en un lugar incongruente
lo puedas recordar todo de sbito
II)
despus
se ha de tapar con sucia pintura blanca
para ilegibilizarlo
FUE EL ESTADO
pero an y todo
se percibe
en las paredes sancristbaldelascasianas repletas de letras y tachones
que se empean en saber
dnde estn
los 43 estudiantes
todas esas mujeres
III)
luego
se ha de cambiar
recuperar
pintar bien alto
en una pancarta / en la puerta del vter del bar / en la txosna
DENOK EMAN BEHAR DUGU ZERBAIT
ETXEKOANDREEK DENA EMAN EZ DEZATEN
31
I)
lehenengo
behin eta berriro errepikatu
NON DA JON1
hamar urte beranduago
ezustaean
toki inkongruente batean
topatzen duzunean
derrepentean etor dakizun dena
II)
ondoren
margo zuri zikinez estali
irakurrezintzeko
FUE EL ESTADO
baina atzematen zaie
hala ere
letraz eta tatxoiez lepo egindako horma sancristobaldelascasas-tarrei
temati nahi baitute jakin
non dauden
43 ikasle
emakume horiek guztiak
III)
gero
aldatu
berreskuratu
margotu ozen
pankarta batean / tabernako komuneko atean / txosnagunean
DENOK EMAN BEHAR DUGU ZERBAIT
ETXEKOANDREEK DENA EMAN EZ DEZATEN2
(1)
Dnde esta Jon? Pintada que hace referencia a la desaparicin de Jon Anza, militante de ETA, entre los aos
2009 y 2010. Su cuerpo fue encontrado en la morgue de Toulouse, el 11 de marzo de 2010. A da de hoy se desconoces las circunstancias de su muerte.
(2)
Todos hemos de dar algo para que las amas de casa no lo den todo. Adaptacin de la clebre frase Todos hemos
que dar algo para que unos pocos no lo den todo.
32
index
2
coquilla. marrazki eskaneatua, katalepsis.
nora aurrekoetxea & laura ruiz. 2016.
18
collage digital 2015. nora aurrekoetxea &laura ruiz.
19
captura de pantalla tumblr. lauraruizsaenz.tumblr.com the constraction
of the southern ruins, or instructions for dealing with debt. Aristide Antonas.
20
spray berdez margoturiko emborra. lantz. 2015.
21
captura de vdeo: euskadi ta askatasuna 2007 2.mov. youtube
http://www.cabuyeria.8k.com/nudos-empalmes-tensor.htm
22
estudio. pelota de playa cromada
23
captura de vdeo: haciendo bolas de silo.mp4. youtube
24
facultad de ciencias del deporte. tema 13. salto de altura
www.canapi.es ventajas del colchn de muelles ensacados.
25
be.arr proiekatua, 2014 nora aurrekoetxea & laura ruiz saenz
26
fotografia digital. lantz. 2015. nora aurrekoetxea & laura ruiz saenz
28-29 collage digital. estudio argazkia, 2016.
nora aurrekoetxea & laura ruiz saenz
30
zapiak 1. marrazki eskaneatua, katalepsis nora.
aurrekoetxea &laura ruiz saenz, 2016.
33
zapiak2. marrazki eskaneatua, katalepsis.
nora aurrekoetxea &laura ruiz saenz, 2016.
35
rose wallpaper, tumblr.
captura de vdeo. gudari eguna 2007 arrasate. youtube.
36-37 captura de pantalla this is my party and i will cry if
i want to. nora aurrekoetxea &laura ruiz. 2016.
38
fotografia digital, 2016. angelu.
39
captura de pantalla katalepsis wikipedia
40
euskalnet.net. barrenadores.
41
captura de pantalla de vdeo madrilen ezinean dabiltza!
#askeguneko globoak harrapatuta.mp4. youtube
42-43 fotografa de la exposicion UNLOCKED, OCCUPY
ATOPOS THE DREAMER Atenas 2016.
fotografa digital. polivinilo cromado con aereosol,
gasolinera Cepsa trinitarios, iruea, 2015.
44-45 captura de vdeo euskadi hors d'tat youtube.
captura de vdeo euskadi hors d'tat youtube.
Earle Meadows (united states) and Shuhei Nishida
(Japan), pole vault, 1936 berlin olympics reports
documentacin de estudio. Escayola y tinta parker, 2016.
captura de pantalla this is my party and i will cry if
i want to. nora aurrekoetxea & laura ruiz. 2016.
documentacin de estudio. coquilla de escayola y tinta, 2016.
46
documentacin de estudio. tronco quemado sobre globo de escayola. 2016.
47
fotografia digital. pared de la calle ronda, bilbao.
2015. nora aurrekoetxea & laura ruiz.
captura de vdeo euskadi hors d'tat youtube .
48-49 S.V.P.P.B. katxi zementu nora aurrekoetxea & laura ruiz saenz, 2015.
argazki digitala, mungia 2016, katalepsis.
rose quartz 13-1520 color of the year 2016.
50 imagen (http://www.
naftemporiki.gr/story/934254/katalipsi-sto-ktirio-dioikisis-tou-apth)
51
captura de pantalla videoclip beyonce disco
lemonade who the fuck do you think i am
52
archivo google, (abrazadera tubera)
53
olentzero antidesarrollistak megapark. argazkia jon diez
54-55 fotografia digital, documentacion del proyecto be.arr,
nora aurrekoetxea & laura ruiz, algorta, 2014.
56
fotografia digital, detalle de fardo ensilado,
ispaster, 2016. nora aurrekoetxea & laura ruiz.
57
captura de pantalla. instagram.
58-59 documentacin de estudio. coquilla de escayola
y tinta y fotografia de archivo, 2016.
proyecto be.arr. 2014. nora aurrekoetxea & laura ruiz saenz
salto del pastor, wikipedia.
proyecto S.V.P.P.B. nora aurrekoetxea & laura ruiz
saenz 2015, imagen archivo euskal memoria.
60
gimnasia: pasos y adaptaciones para realizar ejercicios
de gimnasia (miblogpersonal.blogspot.com)
61
marrazki digitala, katalepsis. nora aurrekoetxea & laura ruiz saenz, 2016.
62
collage digital katalepsis nora aurrekoetxea & laura ruiz saenz.
63 cita we were told to forget Hannah Arendt,
we refugees, tumblr lauraruizsaenz.tumblr.com
79
coquilla marrazki eskaneatua, katalepsis. nora aurrekoetxea &laura ruiz, 2016.
Understanding comes to you when you least expect it, the Stoics were right.
They had the right word for it: katalepsis. Understanding isnt something you
work at, and keep working away at until finally you get there. At least that
doesnt usually happen. Most of the time you have an epiphany, something
unexpected happens, an accident, something unlucky, definitely something
that shouldn't have happened, and suddenly everything is clear and you understand: youve been hit by a lightening bolt and youll never be the same
again.
What will be left of the century that made us? The world that made us? Who
will we tell about it, and how? What will be understood?
I'm not using the royal we here to be majestic, but to refer to an increasingly vague collective, to refer to an era, a place.
How can we explain the meaning of this question, found on one of Azpeitias
walls with three question marks: Non daude K.A.A.???1
Where does one need to be, and how old, to understand such a question?
I was late to understand, get hit by the lightening bolt, why certain books
had the date they were written at the end of the text. I think it came from
Albert Camus: to understand a person, you need to understand their age.
It's the same with texts: you need to know when they were written. This text
also needs a date: Azpeitia, August 2016.
A short while ago, friends and families of the victims gathered before the
Donostia courthouse, requesting them not to shelve the Pasaia ambush
case. Where are the C.A.A? In what kind of obscurity?
To understand a person you need to understand their age: I am 41, I was 41
in January. And this same year, a bolt of lightening hit me: Im 41, and my
world is lost.
Its not nostalgia, the past wasnt better. I dont think nostalgia would lead
a person to write the question: Where are the C.A.A? on a wall. Its what
memory needs. Mine, for me, his or hers for him or her, Id say, but also the
memory of this vague us: a people, a place, an era.
(1) Where are the C.A.A.??? The Comandos Autnomos Anticapitalistas (CAA, Komando
Autonomo Antikapitalistak in Basque, or Autonomous Anticapitalist Commandos in English)
were a group of armed organisations operating in the Basque Country and Navarre at the end
of the 1970s and the beginning of the 1980s.
69
I think the photographs were Willy Uribes. He took photographs of the locations of ETA attacks, the same day and the same time ETA killed, I think.
Im telling it from memory, thats how he tells me, and he talked about the
memory of places, he told me places have memories. And yes, maybe they do,
maybe only places have a memory, and archeologists of the future will tell us
what happened to us, but now we need to hurry up, 41 years, forgetfulness
is lurking.
I was born and raised in Azkoitia, and when we were young our favourite
bar was the Atraskua. ETA attacked Joxe Txiki2 in the doorway of that bar:
there is still a bullet hole in the doorframe. But back then we didnt take any
notice of that hole, we had other things on our minds. We usually didnt even
notice the hole - we hadnt known Joxe Txiki, we only knew what wed been
told, and we didnt really care anyway. What makes the world go round, can
we have a memory of something that didnt happen to us?
Can we keep hold of memories that arent (or dont feel like) our own?
Memory often triggers that lightening bolt, a thread you need to latch on to.
(2) Jose Larraaga Arenas, Joxe Txiki, builder, Falangist, one of the leaders of the movement in Gipuzkoa. ETA finally killed him on New Years Eve 1984, in the doorway of the
Alamenda bar, after two other failed attempts. The story of the murder appears in Willy
Uribes book All donde ETA asesin and also in the blog: https://allidonde.wordpress.
com/2010/02/12/ultimo-atentado-del-ano/)
70
A smell can take you right back to childhood, its there, stowed away somewhere, but you cant get it out whenever and however you want. And I think
it's the same with places: you can choose to keep hold of a memory if you
want, but you need a smell, a name, a photograph, a word, or a lightening bolt
to launch it to the front of your mind in the present.
You look at images of the places ETA attacked, and theres nothing special
about them, people keep going there, they go into a bar... Life goes on, as
they say. The photographer is the one who gives the images a reason or the
justification to trigger a memory. Photographs need to be explained, in captions, because if not you could be looking at any corner on any street. At
least at first glance, the image can never tell us what words have the ability
to do.
Some years ago, Berria newspaper had a section on photography: an image
would take up the two centre pages, and at one side thered be a brief column of text about the photograph, a starting point. I worked on it for a year,
I enjoyed it. On Tuesday afternoons I went to the Berrias office, in Andoain,
and first I would choose an image from the thousands agencies had sent, and
then Id write the accompanying text. The hardest part was always writing
the caption: its an ideological battleground.
I could start on the words of Barthes or Benjamin about footnotes, but come
to think of it no, I dont need authority here.
On a computer at the editorial office Id see photographs from all over the
world, and then print the ones that seemed right for the latest selection,
some ten images per week. I kept all the photos, not for any particular reason, and by the end of the year had a heavy portfolio. I was asked me to give
a talk on art and literature and I did the following exercise with the people
who went: I gave each member of the audience a sheet from the folder, and
they had to explain what they saw in the image, and finally, write a caption.
Theres one I remember well. It was a typical American house, a bungalow, big, with a garage and a little lawn at the front. That was all the photo
showed. I dont remember what caption the person wrote, but afterwards I
gave them the one from the agency: it was the house of a serial killer who
had killed who knows how many people.
A photograph without any explanation is nothing, the only truth in a photograph without any explanation is the light, its the truth about the light the
camera has let in to its lens at that exact moment. It could be of a bush or a
bramble or any old hedge, it could be the burned skin of a body, it could be a
face looking into the camera suspiciously, it could be a dead body lying in the
middle of the street...
Our memory is a hole. Our memory is a black hole.
Our black hole is memory. Our hole is memory.
71
And again Im not using the majestic plural to be majestic, but to refer to that
ever more fluid group, to refer to a place, an era.
And even then, even when memories come to you with a bolt of lightening,
they're still only the light of an instant, or the truth of the light in that instant
if you prefer. The body holds everything, the mind holds everything: inside
are all the moments lived through a whole life, lost in the black hole. Life
molds us, bit by bit. Were constantly being molded, although we no longer
remember how: our memory makes us, as much as forgetting does. Forgetting is no more than a memory we cant remember.
There are places we forget, that we cant remember, and there are also in our
visual and innermost landscapes walls that don't disappear with the passing
of the years, painted and not yet rubbed out. They want to stay constant
in the invisible continuum of history. But there are many more palimpsest
walls: painting upon painting, paint upon painting, painting upon paint, paint
upon paint, adding layer upon layer of skin, making up a body of history, an
onion.
Its some time since Igor Rezola Iztueta worked with these street palimpsests, with a living history, with the landscape changing every minute. The title of an exhibition from Nora Aurrekoetxea and Laura Ruiz in Zarautz made
reference to those same walls that have been painted and scrubbed a thousand times: it was called El pueblo de Malevich (Malevichs Town)3.
But I would say that Malevichs shadow goes deeper than the walls reminiscent of suprematist forms.
It's not easy to measure the scope of Malevich's influence, but Id like to mention two obvious and clear well-known cases, given that they tell us much
about the scope of his shadow. One is Jorge Oteiza, you only need to see his
works, for example the Agia sculpture; the other (and you dont need to dig
too deep to see the influence in his works) is Txomin Badiola.
At the beginning of the 1990s when he lived in New York, Txomin Badiola
completed his work entitled Homeland, and the Bailand series. The pieces
all clearly showed his intention: to take on and reinterpret Malevichs style
of black squares.
In 1993, art critic Donald Kuspit said the following about those pieces, and,
in particular, about Badiolas black and white squares:
Badiola uses the square to testify to the tragic paradox of the Basque quest
for independence. Bailand is Badiolas homeland, and the explicit theme
of his conceptual constructs. These are surely the tragedy of the land in a
real abstract form. They are a litany of despair, they are tragic in their very
structure, or rather, they are as inherently paradoxical as the Basque Rev(3) Title taken from a text written by Beat Krolem for the exhibition. Malevich-en
Herria. Sanz Enea Zarautz 2015.
72
olution. (As with all ethnic revolutions, they can indicate a regressive rejection of modernity - a desperate pursuit of heterogeneity which, in spite of
perhaps being nominal and having no meaning, is an antithesis of the modern tendency towards homogeneity, evident all around in modern standardisation, where everything is standardised, even humans, just like Malevichs
standardised humanoids).
And he adds: Badiolas constructions are, clearly, hybrids - bastards to
allude to one of his series. They are elegant, post-modern, paradoxes. He
is paradoxical by nature: politically, personally, and also technically and
conceptually, as I have said. And his pieces are more than mannerist art, although they are that too, given that a mannerist construction is the best way
of representing the absurdness or irresolubility of the contradictory, creating a sense of perverse abstraction - unreality - inherent to the Basque
situation. This absurd abstract is found most acutely in Homeland and Casa
Encantada (Utopia in Bailand) both from 1992 and Bailand 6 from 19901992 as well as in other works in which there are figures or words alluding
to figures - all of them shadows or ghosts. They are Badiolas most ironic
responses to the fatal situation his homeland is in and, at the same time, his
articulations on the theme.
Perhaps this is more the reason why ours is Malevichs town: because of the
tragic paradox, not the suprematist walls. Perhaps thats how Badiola saw it,
and Kuspit thought it.
Even leaving Donald Kuspits interpretation to one side, Txomin Badiola
is an artist who has brought to his works a world view created by the socio-political armed conflict in Euskal Herria. It can be seen most clearly in
the pieces named before, and particularly in the Malas Formas exhibition:
the ertzainas (regional police), the ikurrias (Basque flags), posters, hoods,
demonstrations, books, guns... In this exhibition Badiola presents a world
view uncommon at the time, as much in Basque art as in his career. It created
a significant amount of chaos, pointlessness, or rather, without any particular point. Responding to more than a meaning, to a need to speak, a need to
express.
But the ertzainas, the ikurrias, posters, hoods, demonstrations, books,
guns Are they symbols of the conflict? Did Badiola use them because they
are? I dont think so. More than anything, Badiolas Malas Formas exhibition
is a personal testimony to a reality, nothing real, overwhelmed with signs
and gestures. And a personal reality. Is there even any other type of reality?
It was rare in any of Badiolas works, and it was rare in the works of other
artists in Euskal Herrias. The world view was new in the art world, with Badiola leading the way. In works of artists from subsequent generations, this
world view is more apparent.
But what is this world view? Which is it? Are they they signs of conflict? And
which conflict?
73
Ibon Aranberri for example, in his work Ethnics, has a similar approach.
What turns something into a symbol of conflict? Take the way guns and other stuff confiscated from a group of criminals are displayed. They are showing everyday items, but all the everyday items take on a certain suspicious
air.
The lightening bolt hits me just when I write this last sentence: I recall a television report in which the presenter announced they had arrested Comando
Madrid, and the images showed all the things theyd seized: all so well-organised on a table, with among other things, an Anagrama paperback book.
Donald Kuspit sees the situation in Euskal Herria as an ethnic revolution.
Ibon Aranberri called his work Ethnics. An ironic gesture perhaps?
If we stop and think about it, the way the police show those objects seized
from the enemy is very scientific, heavily linked to modernity: a desire to be
neutral, universal, lacking subjectivity. Limited to naming, classifying, showing. Its similar to the way archeologists show their finds. Perhaps Ibon Aranberri also rejects modernity?
In Basque art there are more than a few works that could, in one way or another, be related to the conflict, but I dont know if anyone has attempted to
contemplate the aesthetics of symbols of conflict in such a direct and crude
way as Nora Aurrekoetxea and Laura Ruiz did.
Maybe some distance was needed.
You certainly couldnt accuse them of lacking optimism: they're waiting for a
moment of catalepsis.
The way I see it though, the situation we face is catatonic.
Who are we? I dont even know.
74
I)
first
to be repeated over and over again
NON DA JON?1
so that ten years later
by chance
somewhere unexpected
you suddenly remember everything
II)
afterwards
it needs to be covered with dirty white paint
so it cant be understood
IT WAS THE STATE
but it can still
be seen
on the sancristobaldelascasas-ish walls, covered in writing and scrawls
that demand to know
where
43 students went
all those women
III)
then
it had to be changed
renewed
painted in huge letters
on a banner / on the toilet wall in a bar / on the beer tent
DENOK EMAN BEHAR DUGU ZERBAIT
ETXEKOANDREEK DENA EMAN EZ DEZATEN2
(1)
Where is Jon? Graffiti referring to the disappearance of Jon Anza, ETA fighter, between 2009 and 2010. His body
was found at Toulouse morgue on 11 March 2010. To this day the circumstances of his death remain unknown.
(2)
We all have to give something so the wives dont have to give everything. Adapted from the famous phrase Todos
hemos que dar algo para que unos pocos no lo den todo (We all have to give something so that the few dont have to
give everything).
www. noraaurrekoetxea.com
www.lauraruizsaenz.com
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