“We still don’t have a society that understands what artists do. “In our society artists are vagabonds, outsiders,” he says. While he’s uncertain what DSS 2016’s legacy will be, he hopes it will help Basque society appreciate artists a whole lot more.
In deference to the neighbourhood’s history, the mural, which has been created on the wall of Casa Ciriza, a former fish processing warehouse in Pasaia, incorporates an old work of graffiti art depicting a mermaid.Īrrieta is glad his mural will bring people to the town on the outskirts of San Sebastián, which he feels is really in need of regeneration. The artist has created a mural using skateboard decks, produced by a company in Hondarribia and painted with a mountainous landscape, referencing Japanese and Chinese painting while simultaneously suggesting the mountains of the Basque Country. I am Basque, but I feel I am a universal artist.”įor DSS 2016, Arrieta was one of five artists asked to produce a mural for Speaking Walls, a Lighthouse of Peace project. I like this stuff, but I am not in this category, I do not feel this pressure.
“So some artists have tried to create a Basque art. “In the Basque Country after the Spanish Civil War we had problems with Franco, a struggle to keep our language, to keep our identity,” he says.
He lived and worked in China from 2005 to 2013, where, in 2007, he founded MA Studio, the country’s first residency programme predominantly for Spanish artists.Īrrieta, whose work is inspired by both the Manga comics and kung-fu movies he loved when he was growing up, and traditional Asian painting, has an international outlook. His work is collected by institutions such as the Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, and has been exhibited across Europe and Asia. Judas Arrieta was born and raised in Hondarribia, a small fishing town approximately 25km from San Sebastián. Words: Gareth Rees / Images: Rebecca Rees JUDAS ARRIETA, ARTIST “It’s about the people who live here and what they are doing.” “It’s not about attracting more visitors,” he says. But its aim is not simply to boost tourism. Lighthouse Of Peace will promote coexistence, pacifism and respect Lighthouse Of Life represents what Berástegui calls an “anthropological approach to culture” and will explore how we relate to ourselves, to others and to the natural environment and Lighthouse Of Voices will use artistic mediums to cultivate mutual understanding.īerástegui says that DSS 2016’s programme should be interesting to anyone with a desire to get to know the city of San Sebastián in a new context. The organisers decided not to arrange the schedule for DSS 2016 using conventional categories such as ‘film’, ‘theatre’, ‘music’ and so on, but rather to fit the year’s activities into three conceptual groupings. But through the activities we have planned, hopefully, we can learn to work differently to work together.” “It’s not the goal, you don’t have to reach the lighthouse. “The idea of the lighthouse is that its light guides you somewhere,” says Berástegui. For us, it was very important that peace was the core theme.”Ī lighthouse was chosen as the symbol to represent this goal. “Instead of investing a lot of money in building new spaces for culture – the city already has many – we decided to do something different. Just four months later, on October 20, 2011, the Basque separatist group Euskadi Ta Askatasuna, who had been devoted to a violent struggle for Basque independence since the 1950s, announced an end to all armed activities.įor the organisers of Donostia/San Sebastián 2016 (DSS 2016), this historic moment inspired what Pablo Berástegui, CEO of DSS 2016, calls a “radical” approach. On June 28, 2011, the Spanish city of San Sebastián (Donostia in Basque), a popular tourist destination located in Spain’s Basque Country, was one of two cities named European Capital Culture for 2016 – the other was Wrocław, Poland. Could its status as a European Capital of Culture for 2016 shape a more positive future? Six locals explain. 2 August 2013 San Sebastián lies at the heart of Basque country, a region with a well documented turbulent history.
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