Artistic Residencies

Irantzu Lekue participates in three artistic residencies in 2017

Bordeaux, Madrid and Baigorri have been the stages of these residences in which the Basque artist has produced different works

Three are, for the moment, the artistic residences in which Irantzu Lekue has participated so far this year in cities such as Bordeaux (France), Saint Etienne de Baigorri and Madrid. Stays with different objectives and functions have allowed it to create new works and make new contacts with artists and to deepen the current reality of cultural management within the European framework.

The artistic stay in Baigorri has allowed him to generate new work. The project began “with the contact with its people and their environment”. Thus during several days he developed landscape and figurative works of the surroundings of Castle Etxauzia. The oldest elements of this castle date back to the 11th century. It was seized by the Nazis in World War II, lodged Charles Chaplin and was owned, among others, by actress Eleanor Boardman

Closely linked to various events in Navarre history, Irantzu Lekue has made the Arnasa 01 series there, “repairing the surroundings, the views of Etxauzia or the village from the vineyards that surround it,” explains Lekue. “A suitable frame to create” from the series Arnasa 01 where the works are created in mixed pictorial technique through a dynamic brushstroke, “similar to the impressionist, representing the transience of light in the instant to be captured in situ “. The work consists of six large format paintings that have as their center the Castle Etxauzia. The Castle is located on a rocky promontory of Baigorri – 36 kilometers from Bayonne -, has passed much of the history of Lower Navarre of the last ten centuries.

The artistic residence in Bordeaux (France) has been developed within the framework of the third edition of the Creative Mobility Program of the Euroregion Vers an Ecosystème Créatif Transfrontalier and is more linked to cultural management. An artistic residence within the program developed by different entities of the Eurorphion: the Basque Government, through the Agency Garapen, Bitamine Faktoria and Fabrique Pola, the Bordeaux artistic and creative pole, referring to European level, which next year will inaugurate its New headquarters: a building of 4,000 square meters on the banks of the River Garonne.

Vers an Ecosystème Créatif Transfrontalier is a mobility program between 24 young creators from Euskadi and Aquitaine, which contributes to the consolidation of a creative ecosystem in the Euroregion, “to bring Euskadi and Aquitaine closer together, so that we get to know each other and start to create new Projects together, “explains Irantzu Lekue, artist and founder of ARTgia sorgune & aretoa. Thus the program is developed in order to be able to give the maximum attention to the creators and to share with them / them meeting spaces that allow to weave networks, to connect ideas, to look for synergies between the local creative ecosystems-comarcales- Regional partnerships with the aim of moving towards the consolidation of an Euroregional creative space.

They have established contacts with “creative entrepreneurship spaces, galleries and creative factories such as La Reserve, 5unset, Bon pour1 tour, Galerie La Mauvaise Réputation, Borderline or the meetings held with the management of Fabrique Pola that provide tools for the improvement of The projects, refresh creativity and innovation and encourage inspiration and new ideas, both in Aquitaine and Euskadi.

The micro artistic residence of Madrid has developed in the Plaza del Sol. A different bet that was born with the aim of turning the street into a cultural epicenter turning it into a “space of artists in creation”. There were several artistic and collective proposals that participated in the residence.

Under the direction of Guerrilla Food Sound System that returned to Madrid after its passage through Matadero, La Casa Encendida or MediaLab Prado the artistic platform returned to the capital with an innovative proposal that has as an aim to extend this spirit of hybridization and experimentation in new formats To more initiatives and agents, “said its promoter Ruben Castillejo.

This time, the axes of action were, collaborative and committed creation as a tool of social action, and the use of public space as a place for the creation and dissemination of experimental artistic and cultural practices

In the “Akamparte” initiative, artists such as Alexander Ríos (Bogotá, 1984), Daniel López de Pariza (Vitoria – Gasteiz, 1985), JMYES (Madrid, 1991), Arturo ‘s multidisciplinary artist and researcher in contemporary art participated with Irantzu Lekue Cancio, the group from Bilbao, Truca Recel.