The exhibition ‘Arantzazu, 70 years’ claims architecture as the moving force for the artistic ensemble of Gipuzkoa

2021 October 29

Photo: Mikel Blasco

• It has been presented this morning at the D'Museoa where, organised by the Official Basque-Navarre Association of Architects, it will be open to the public from tomorrow until 30 November.
• The exhibition claims the work of the architects Luis Laorga and Francisco Javier Sáenz de Oiza and their role in the construction of possibly the most representative artistic ensemble of the 20th century in Gipuzkoa.
• Several activities have been organised around ‘Arantzazu, 70 years’, including several talks and a workshop.
• An opening round table will be held this afternoon at the Basque Institute of Architecture.

Today, Friday 29th, the Official Basque-Navarre Association of Architects presented the exhibition ‘Arantzazu, 70 years’ as part of the Basque Country International Architecture Biennial of the, Mugak/. Installed in the D'Museoa, in the Old Part of San Sebastian, it can be visited until 30 November and will be accompanied by various activities.

The general objective is to claim the architecture of Enrique Laorga and Francisco Javier Sáenz de Oiza as the driving force behind possibly the most representative artistic ensemble of the 20th century in Gipuzkoa. The presentation has been attended by Edorta Kortadi, director of D'Museoa; José Ángel Medina Murua, curator of the Mugak/ Biennial; Juana Otxoa-Errarte, president of COAVN Gipuzkoa; and Carmiña Dovale, one of the curators of the exhibition, together with Álvaro E. Olaiz, Emilio Varela, Estanislao Fernández and Víctor Aspe. Also has been there Enrique Arenas Laorga, architect and grandson of Luis Laorga; the grandson of Luis Laorga, Jokin Lizasoain, architect and researcher; and Juan Ignacio Larrea, Franciscan and guardian of the Basilica of Arantzazu. All of them will participate in a round table discussion that will take place this afternoon at 18h at the Basque Institute of Architecture on the occasion of the inauguration, where Marisa Sáenz Guerra, architect and daughter of Francisco Javier Sáenz de Oiza, will also take part.

 

Report of a monumental work

The COAVN is organising this exhibition beacuse of the 70th anniversary of the start of work on the Basilica of Nuestra Señora de Arantzazu in Oñati. The starting point of the exhibition is a copy of the original construction project from the COAVN archive. As stated in the report itself, “this document is the development of the preliminary project presented in 1950 in the competition” won by the architects Luis Laorga and Francisco Javier Sáenz de Oiza.

Through the original plans and the report, the visitors will get to know how the architects thought and felt when they were planning this work, as well as what the relationship was like with the rest of the protagonists: the Franciscan promoters, painters, sculptors and technical architects. The exhibition also has a virtual part, in which visitors can travel to Oñati and contemplate the basilica from different angles. The exhibition can be visited until 30 November at the D'Museoa at the following times: from 10:30 to 14:30 and from 17:00 to 19:00 (Saturdays until 18:00) and Sundays from 13:30 to 19:00.   

Recyclable paper and cardboard materials were used for the production of the exhibition. In addition, several display cases and exhibitors lent by the Department of Culture of the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa and D'Museoa have been customised, with the aim of creating the minimum environmental impact.

 

Complementary activities

A series of parallel activities will accompany the exhibition: specifically, three conferences and a workshop, to be held at the Basque Institute of Architecture. On 17 November, historian and journalist Félix Maraña will give a talk titled ‘Poetry and poets, the other architects of Arantzazu’. On 18th November, it will be the turn of Elena Martín, doctor in Fine Arts and author of a thesis on Oteiza and Arantzazu, who will give the lecture ‘Oteiza in Aránzazu: aesthetic, religious, symbolic and social purpose’. On 19 November, Javier González de Durana, historian and Fine Arts advisor, among others, will give the talk ‘Arantzazu: architecture, myth and politics’. All the conferences will begin at 18:00 and after each of them there will be a round table discussion moderated by the architect and exhibition curator Carmiña Dovale. Finally, on 20 November, the workshop ‘Arantzan...Zu?’ will be held for families by Maushaus. All these activities will be free of charge, but it is necessary to register in advance as indicated on the website.

 

Weekend for building

The Biennial will continue its activities during the weekend. Throughout tomorrow and Sunday, 30 and 31 October, the workshop ‘Domes I’, organised by Espacio Réflex and the MIDOMO collective, will take place. Participants will learn how to build their own domo, a wooden dome, and after a theoretical base about the ancestral structure, they will create one in the cloister of the San Telmo Museum.

Espacio Réflex is organising two more events on the same Saturday at the Basque Institute of Architecture. The audiovisual producer, art curator and professor Andrés Hispano will give the talk ‘Other Places’, which will present the role of cinema and television in the mythification of cities through examples ranging from the hyperbole of the modern world (as in ‘The Truman Show’ or 'Edward Scissorhands') to its unattainable idealisation (as in ‘Avatar’). It will be accompanied by the screening of the film ‘Drop city’ about a community living in metal domes in Colorado.

On Saturday there will be another workshop for families. It will take place at the Basque Institute of Architecture, where Maushaus will offer ‘Sketches’. With the main exhibition of Mugak/ as a starting point, it will bring the work closer and broaden the audience's view of the unique typographic sensitivity of Carme Pinós with games.