The exhibit Baporak by Mikel Eskauriaza joins the 35th anniversary of ARCOmadrid

San Sebastián 2016 and the Etxepare Basque Institute co-produce the exhibition in which the artist from Bizkaia (Basque Country) explores the Basque tuna fleet operating in international waters. I can be visited at the Naval Museum in Madrid until 17 April.

Baporak joins the celebration of the 35th anniversary of the Madrid International Contemporary Art Fair (ARCO), it has been curated by Javier Hontoria and is part of the Conversations of the European Capital of Culture program. has been co-produced by the Etxepare Basque Institute and San Sebastian 2016, with the support of Cadena SER.

The exhibition is an ambitious photographic project in which the artist has explored the Basque tuna fleet operating in international waters. Eskauriaza has made an analysis of vessels evoking the types of marine painters (paintings in which the sea covers two thirds of the painted surface and the boat view from a rigorous side perspective). The photographer has opposed the use of languages of our time to use almost exclusively painting and literature as vehicles of expression. The result is a revision of the gender from a contemporary context, referring to the commercial and geopolitical landscape of today.

San Sebastián 2016 and the Etxepare Basque Institute co-produce the exhibition in which the artist from Bizkaia (Basque Country) explores the Basque tuna fleet operating in international waters. I can be visited at the Naval Museum in Madrid until 17 April.

Baporak joins the celebration of the 35th anniversary of the Madrid International Contemporary Art Fair (ARCO), it has been curated by Javier Hontoria and is part of the Conversations of the European Capital of Culture program. has been co-produced by the Etxepare Basque Institute and San Sebastian 2016, with the support of Cadena SER.

The exhibition is an ambitious photographic project in which the artist has explored the Basque tuna fleet operating in international waters. Eskauriaza has made an analysis of vessels evoking the types of marine painters (paintings in which the sea covers two thirds of the painted surface and the boat view from a rigorous side perspective). The photographer has opposed the use of languages of our time to use almost exclusively painting and literature as vehicles of expression. The result is a revision of the gender from a contemporary context, referring to the commercial and geopolitical landscape of today.

Bapora ( "Steam") is the word that marine employers and owners of the Basque town of Bermeo still used to refer to the boat in Basque language. The province of Bizkaia highlights from the Middle Ages because of its importance and its nautical tradition; first because of whaling and later due to fishing. Eskauriaza  links in this project the tradition of great navigators of the Basque Country, that runs from Juan Sebastian Elcano to Blas de Lezo, with other moments of the history related to fisheries, the tuna fishing in the Indian Ocean and also the events fishermen have to face today, which are not that  very different from the past, such as the exposure to piracy.

Mikel Eskauriaza (Bilbao, 1969) has a degree in Fine Arts from the UPV / EHU. Specialized in contemporary art, he has also studied photography at the International Center of Photography (ICP) in New York.