The Mugak/ Biennial offers different activities in Bilbao, bringing architecture closer to citizens

2019 October 23

• Tomorrow at the Bilborock concert hall, Urbanbat organises “Crónicas urbanas” [Urban Chronicles], a live magazine with interviews, video-screenings and music and art performances.
• The Eraikune construction cluster will approach urban regeneration in the conference “Zorrozaurre: de la Ribera a la Isla” [Zorrozaurre: from La Ribera to the Island], which will be held at the Itsasmuseum on the 4th of November.
• On the 7th of November, researchers Atxu Amann and Serafina Amoroso will participate in “Código Fuente Audiovisual. One-No Woman-Day” [Audio-visual Source Code. One-No Woman-Day], a format that combines a lecture and an audio-visual screening.
• Also on the 7th of November, the TopARTE programme of the Guggenheim Bilbao Museum offers a conference about the Guggenheim New York and the Le Corbusier National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo in their 60th anniversary.

The second edition of the Basque Country International Architecture Biennial Mugak/, organised between the 10th of October and the 12th of December, has expanded its activities to the three main cities of the Basque Country. In the following weeks, the programme in Bilbao will include screenings, lectures and workshops in different formats open to all citizens.

The urban innovation studio Urbanbat proposes two activities at the Bilborock concert hall. On Thursday 24th of October, it invites to reflect on the influence of architecture and urban design on the care for people and the built environment. To this end, it uses a kind of late show format, a live magazine with interviews, video-screenings and music and art performances called “Crónicas Urbanas. Ciudades y Cuidados” [Urban Chronicles. Cities and Care].

Architect, researcher and communicator Nuria Moliner will moderate the magazine and introduce Zaida Muxi, an Argentinian researcher specialised in urban planning, architecture and gender; Iñaki Alonso, a Partner and Director of sAtt architecture studio, which specialises in social architecture; and Isabel Martín, a urban planner and architect who focuses on the daily activity of the profession.

The event will also feature: the special collaboration of Txaranga Urretabizkaia, a non-conventional music experiment with wind instruments such as trumpets, saxophones and trombones; the artistic intervention of Juan Pablo Ordúñez, known as MawatreS; and the photographic work of Igor Calvo, founder of Colectivo Komite, which has organised different collaborative art projects.

“Código Fuente Audiovisual. One-No Woman-Day” [Audio-visual Source Code. One-No Woman-Day]

Researchers Atxu Amann and Serafina Amoroso are in charge of the second Urbanbat proposal, “Código Fuente Audiovisual. One-No Woman-Day” [Audio-visual Source Code. One-No Woman-Day], which will take place at the Bilborock concert hall in the Bizkaia main city on the 7th of November.

Audio-visual Source Code is a hybrid that is midway between an audio-visual lecture and a screening with commentary. It is presented in stage format, as a kind of game in which the invitee delves into his or her audio-visual material in order to share a narrative on a given theme or area of research.

Atxu Amann is a researcher and professor at the public School of Architecture of the UPM as well as an expert in architectural communication. In her work as a speaker, she focuses on feminism and animal welfare. Serafina Amoroso is an independent researcher with a PhD in Architecture whose most recent work has focussed on gender approaches and their relationships with space and education.

“Zorrozaurre: de la Ribera a la Isla” [Zorrozaurre: from La Ribera to the Island]

For its part, the Basque Construction Cluster Eraikune looks into Zorrozaurre and its urban regeneration through four intertwined activities: a lecture, a workshop, a boat trip and a screening. All of them will take place at the Itsasmuseum in Bilbao on the 4th of November.

The conference “Zorrozaurre: de la Ribera a la Isla” [Zorrozaurre: from La Ribera to the Island] follows the thread of the urban regeneration project for that area, from its industrial origins until the present situation. It will deal with the following main lines: regeneration, restoration and reuse. 

The conference will be divided in two separate parts: a first block of lectures given by experts and actors involved in the works at the area; and a second block with a workshop to work on specific areas that have no defined future yet. The conference will conclude with a boat trip around Zorrozaurre and an audio-visual screening.

“El Museo para Frank Lloyd Wright” [A Museum for Frank Lloyd Wright]

To commemorate the opening of the Guggenheim New York Museum 60 years ago, the Higher Technical School of Architecture of the University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU proposes a conference about this museum and the Le Corbusier National Museum of Western Art in Tokio, which also opened in 1959. The conference, entitled “El Museo para Frank Lloyd Wright” [A Museum for Frank Lloyd Wright], will take place at the Guggenheim Bilbao Museum on the 7th of November in the framework of its TopARTE programme.