ARTgia was born to “help turn on the cultural light in Gasteiz and Araba. To contribute, create, add and shine with your own light”. The project unites contemporary art, the basque language and culture.
“It was Mikel Laboa who sang ARTgia den… look hadi – look to see if there is light. From Argia we wanted to take a leap … to ARTgia,” explains its promoter, Irantzu Lekue
GASTEIZ The city now has a new space for art and culture. ARTgia gave birth to a space for creation and exhibition … “in permanent construction, blank, flexible, where everything can happen.” As explained by its promoter, Irantzu Lekue “The aim of ARTgia is to provide the conditions to create”. A place that is a catalyst, where exchanges, dialogues and experimentation arise with creativity as a basis and contemporary creation as an end. “A space that actively promotes hybridization between different artistic proposals: individual and collective, from different fields. A space for artistic production and also for social production, for educated citizenship, trained and critical”.
The project presented by Irantzu Lekue is a project of artistic creation and cultural management “it is also a platform, a meeting place and an exhibition. To do this, it is committed to researching new models of management of artistic and organizational creation, supporting innovative strategies that enhance ways to encourage participation and break down the – until now – high wall between people who use art and society”. Based on a collaborative philosophy, it complements its own resources with phases of exchanges between creative people, from different backgrounds, in order to find new formulas for creation, organization, and relationships between society and artistic action. “A place for exchange, hybridization and artistic dialogue for artists, creators, cultural groups and for society in general that places creativity, research, experimentation, innovation and artistic diffusion in a central position.”
Lekue explains that “ARTgia is a living space and, therefore, an adaptable space .” The environment, the neighbourhood and the needs that arise in artistic processes and change over time. A space that is born and vindicates its birth outside the walls of the centre of the old town: to take art and culture, also, to the neighbourhoods. In this case the “London” of Gasteiz, “as Belén Nevado calls it” – indicates. To what one day were “cheap houses.” A space which uses the basque language as the vehicle language: that is, it is an active element in fostering from art and from Gasteiz – in a proactive way – the visual and plastic creation in Euskera, which is also born with the Bai Euskarari seal.
In its facilities, meetings, conferences, presentations, recordings, projections, project development and dialogue between diverse social sectors and artistic practices oriented in different disciplines will be developed. “It covers almost all the phases of the creative cycle: from creation to dissemination, through training and exhibiting work processes,” she explains.
The ARTgia project was led by Lekue with a strong collaborative team -. Women and young people united hand in hand in a space oriented towards creation and innovation. A space open to creations, initiatives, activities, proposals, collaborations, exchange of knowledge and experiences, which came about thanks to this mixed model: born from the private but open initiative.
ARTgia will host projects in the creation phase and will provide a support service for the development of professional careers as well as initial and ongoing training services that also include their dissemination. It was born with the vocation of opening up opportunities for younger creators to take the first steps towards developing their skills and their subsequent professionalism. e points out, “the artistic and creative work of artists from other age groups will also be made visible.
ARTgia was born. “Born to respond to a need in the city of Vitoria – Gasteiz. The need for places to exhibit art, open spaces for creation, hybridization, cooperation and innovation in the culture sector”. That is why, even before officially opening its doors, it had already hosted several meetings of the “Ikertu” project (a Basque Government scholarship), the presentation of the trailer for the documentary Orainaldian laissez faire and the exhibition “Ikuspegiak” by Eider Bernaola. All of them, initiatives and activities aimed at promoting cultural creation.
ARTgia was born to encourage, to assure that spaces linked to art and culture multiply. “So, our resources can be exchanged and collaborations between artists, artistic residences, exhibition activities, training workshops, meetings and specialized conferences and cultural activities,” she says.