400m

On the ostraca of Iruña-Veleia, and the path that leads from archaeology to contemporary art.

400m is the distance between the museum of archaeology and the museum of contemporary art in Vitoria-Gasteiz, in Basque Country. It is also the title of our new book on the controversy surrounding the archaeological discovery of the "ostraca" from Iruña-Veleia: Roman potsherds with engravings of images, texts in Latin and what appeared to be the earliest written manifestation of the Basque language, which were deemed a forgery by a select commission of academic experts.

The book will be presented for the first time at the exhibition "The Materiality of the Invisible" in the Van Eyck Academy, and will be for sale during the annual convention of the European Association of Archaeologists taking place in Maastricht from 30 August to 3 September.

With texts by Iñaki Martínez de Albéniz, Harkaitz Cano, Iratxe Jaio and Klaas van Gorkum.

Printed with a mimeograph at the Charles Nypels Lab in the Van Eyck Multiform institute for fine art, design and reflection.

Basiskamp Entre Nous

In september we will be participating in the Entre Nous Basiskamp, an investigative project related to the welfare state. A military style camp will be the setting for a number of activities, debates and presentations tackling subjects such as democracy, labour, education, poverty and (health) care. Several artists have been selected from each province, to live and work for one month in and from the camp.

The Materiality of the Invisible

The Materiality of the Invisible opens on the 29th of August in Maastricht, at the Van Eyck, Marres and Bureau Europa. The exhibition approaches contemporary art as a form of archaeology. New and strange worlds are uncovered, exposing current and social political realities. The artists' discoveries, narratives, and installations propose speculative pasts and futures. The combined exhibitions offer insights into our existence and make visible what inhabits the imagination.

We will be showing new work, The Stick and the Stone, as well as Nire ama Roman hil da, of which the video is now subtitled into English. Accompanying this installation is a new publication, 400m, which has been printed at the Charles Nypels Lab at the Van Eyck.

ARCOmadrid

ARCOmadrid with Gallery Joey Ramone
Opening Section
22 - 26 February 2017

With pleasure we would like to invite you to visit the booth of Gallery Joey Ramone at the artfair ARCO, where we will be showing our installation WORK IN PROGRESS.

Agency of Living Organisms

Group Exhibition, 21 October 2016 - 5 February 2017
Tabakalera International Centre for Contemporary Culture, Donostia - San Sebastián

The Agency of Living Organisms exhibition seeks to address the interrelations between contemporary urban social structures and nature, from the artistic and collective perspective, by means of organising transient "living” structures, micro-political actions and interventions. Compared to humans, plants and other living organisms have a set of sensorial characteristics that are often surprisingly sophisticated with which they interact and exist in their environment, in the same way that happens in art.

Curated by Pauline Doutreluingne. With Lara Almarcegui, Iain Ball, El Conde de Torrefiel, New Mineral Collective, Tue Greenfort, Iratxe Jaio and Klaas van Gorkum, Anne Duk Hee Jordan, Esther Kokmeijer, Nader Koochaki, Maider López, Gerard Ortín, Tere Recarens, Koenraad Van den Driessche.

The Loan Application

A public symposium coordinated by the artists Iratxe Jaio and Klaas van Gorkum, on the implications of exhibiting the original artefacts from a contested archaeological discovery in a Museum of Contemporary Art.

In 2016 the artists submitted a formal loan application to the Basque Government, in order to mount an exhibition of ancient Roman potshards with inscriptions at Artium, the museum of contemporary art in Vitoria-Gasteiz. These artefacts, discovered at the archaeological site Iruña-Veleia, were the subject of an ongoing controversy, as they were suspected to be the product of an elaborate forgery. Inscribed with what is alleged to be the earliest recorded writing in the Basque language, they have never been exhibited in public and are currently under custody of Bibat, the archaeological museum of Alava, pending legal verdict on the question whether fraud has been committed.

To exhibit the pieces in the museum of contemporary art would require a physical displacement of only 400 meters, yet produce a radical change in discursive context. The authorities denied the request, as anticipated, so the artists invited several guests to reflect on the case and on the absence of the artefacts in the museum. The symposium has been devised as an encounter between artistic, scientific and political sensibilities. Each contributor presented a perspective on the archaeological evidence that moves beyond the false-authentic binary, and invites us to reflect on the implication of the public in the institutional processes that determine the fate of their own material culture.

Libro de los Plagios - Formas de apoyarse en obra ajena

The "Libro de los Plagios" (Book of Plagiarism) is a booklet that has been printed for distribution during an exhibition of a series of large charcoal drawings, and which mimics the style and content of a book originally published by the Basque sculptor Jorge Oteiza in 1991, which has gone out of print.

Libro de los Plagios (Book of Plagiarism)

Carboncillos basados en las imágenes del Libro de los Plagios

A series of charcoal drawings, based on the images from the "Libro de los Plagios" (The Book of Plagiarism). This book was published in 1991 by the Basque sculptor Oteiza, as an indictment of what he perceived to be a flagrant plagiarism of his work.

The Loan Application - Internal meeting

May 2016. Interinstitutional working group in Azala Espazioa and Artium, Basque Museum-Center for Contemporary Art

On the 5th and 6th of May, a working group will be convened to study and discuss the legal, ethical and social ramifications of exhibiting the polemical archaeological discovery from the Iruña-Veleia site in Basque Country in Artium, Basque Museum for Contemporary Art.

When these artefacts were denounced as a forgery, they became entangled in a legal process that has been ongoing since 2008. As a result, they have never been exhibited to the public, and are currently under custody of Bibat, the archaeological museum of Vitoria-Gasteiz. To display them in the museum for contemporary art requires a displacement of only 300 meters, but involves a radical change in discursive context.

Taking the hypothetical collaboration between the two museums as a starting point, the working group will discuss how the confrontation between artistic, scientific and political sensibilities may be oriented towards a narrative that overcomes the false-authentic binary, and how to involve the public in the institutional processes that determine the evolution of their own material culture.

Kaíros, Critical Contexts, Art and Writing

A seminar at the San Telmo Museum in Donostia San Sebastián, in the context of the exhibition 1966 | GAUR KONSTELAZIOAK | 2016.

We will present an essay on the relationship between history and writing, invoking "The Writing Lesson" by the anthropologist Lévi-Strauss to revaluate the purpose of avant-garde manifestos such as that of the Basque Gaur Group.

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