Artists Elena Aitzkoa and Ibon Aranberri at the Gotebörg Biennial

The Gotebörg International Biennial of Contemporary Art (GIBCA) opened its doors on September 7^th. The 10^th edition of this international exhibition will last until November 17^th, and several world-known artists will exhibit their most important works there, including two Basques: Elena Aitzkoa and Ibon Aranberri.

The Gotebörg International Biennial of Contemporary Art (GIBCA) opened its doors on September 7^th. The 10^th edition of this international exhibition will last until November 17^th, and several world-known artists will exhibit their most important works there, including two Basques: Elena Aitzkoa and Ibon Aranberri.

Elena Aitzkoa works with sculpture, poetry, video, and performance. Everyday objects such as clothing and porcelain are joined together with stone, gypsum, and plants to make tightly entangled forms. Everyday things are made visible as poetry, and poetry becomes a way of navigating through everyday life. Body, mind, words, and objects exchange places or are subsumed into one another. Aitzkoa´s recent projects include the exhibition Zarza Corazón at Museo Patio Herrariano in Valladolid (2019), the record Paraíso Terrenal (2019), and the performance cycle Headscarfs Close to the Ground, part of OsloPilot (2016). The works that she will bring to the Biennale include Circunvalación, Completamente Dentro, Flor de Mar and Pájaro Médula.

The starting point for Ibon Aranberri´s work Sources without Qualities was a series of abstract metal shapes encountered by the artist in different warehouses for industrial heritage objects. The abstract objects were unclassified, and their original function forgotten. The installation in Gothenburg references this vocabulary of geometric forms that essentially stayed the same throughout the shift from manual to machine labour in the period after the second world war. This migration of forms traces the modern project of building a common language for a new society and material culture that includes manufacture as well as art. Ibon Aranberri has exhibited individually at institutions such as Secession in Vienna (2014), Fundación Antoni Tàpies in Barcelona (2011) and Kunsthalle Basel (2007). He has contributed to Bienalsur, Buenos Aires (2017), Garden of Learning, Busan Biennale in South Korea (2012), and Documenta 12 (2007).