Mugak/ will host renowned figures such as Beatriz Colomina, Isaac Cordal or José María Torres Nadal in its fourth edition

2023 September 29

• They will join the announced 'pritzker' Wang Shu as participants in the main exhibition and will also visit the Basque Country to give various talks.
• The architectural event, the main one of its kind in the Atlantic Arc, will take place between October and November under the slogan 'rebuild, reinhabit, rethink'. 
• Mugak/ will invite public reflection through three ephemeral pavilions that will take the Biennial to the streets.

The Basque Country International Architecture Biennial Mugak/, presented its fourth edition this Thursday in Madrid, which will bring together a hundred free activities from October to 24 November. It is the main architectural event of its kind in the Atlantic Arc, and every two years it attracts thousands of people (70,000 in 2021). This 2023 will be held under the slogan 'rebuild, reinhabit, rethink', with the aim of encouraging debate on the impact of architecture in the context of the current multidimensional crisis; from its environmental, economic and social responsibility to its capacity for transformation and care.

After the welcome by the director of the ETSAM, Manuel Blanco, the director of Housing, Land and Architecture of the Basque Government (the institution that organises this Biennial), Pablo García Astrain, emphasised that "since its beginnings in 2017, Mugak/ has organised dozens of activities around architecture in each edition, all of them open and free of charge. Structured around a central exhibition, and with an open call that allows the participation of a multitude of agents, each edition has its own character and 'harvests' its spirit. This fourth edition proposes routes and urban walks through our geography, as well as recovering the street once again with ephemeral pavilions". García Astrain recalled that Wang Shu joins a long list of prestigious international professionals who in these four editions have promoted reflection on architecture and urban planning, such as Rafael Aranda, Sou Fujimoto, Carme Pinós, Alvaro Siza, Anne Lacaton and Jean Philippe Vassal, Rafael Moneo, Tatiana Bilbao, Rudy Riccioti, Christian Kerez or Sandra Barclay and Jean Pierre Crousse, among others.

Together with him, the Secretary General for the Urban Agenda and Housing of the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and the Urban Agenda, Iñaqui Carnicero, highlighted the value of the architectural event that Mugak/ constitutes and emphasised the importance of "the administrations supporting this type of call for proposals, which promote architectural quality, above all through contracting".

The curator of this fourth edition, María Arana, has been in charge of bringing the essence of Mugak/ to the public, a Biennial conceived as an open and collaborative cultural infrastructure with a clear context for this edition: "At this time it is urgent to rethink how we inhabit the world and how we will survive in it in the near future. The world has relied too much on growth as the only way to progress, and yet this way of living has been at an end for years. The future cannot be built on the same foundations on which we live. It is therefore timely to revisit the German philosopher and thinker Martin Heidegger's 'Building, Dwelling, Thinking' from 1951, a context of destruction and subsequent reconstruction in Europe".

Celebrating architecture, celebrating the street

Within this theoretical framework of 'rebuilding, re-building, rethinking', Arana has advanced part of the official programme, which will be displayed in San Sebastian, Bilbao and Vitoria. 'Inhabiting Change', the main exhibition of this edition, is curated by Arana herself with a choral character and, together with the 'pritzker' Wang Shu, other recognised figures will participate in it: the researcher Beatriz Colomina, the artist Isaac Cordal, the architects José María Torres Nadal, Ramón Faura and Marina Otero and the studios amid.cero9, TAKK and Acha Zaballa Arquitectos. All of them will travel to the Basque Country from 25 October to give a series of lectures.

In addition, Mugak/ will invite citizens to reflect on the public space of cities, with three pavilions that will take the Biennial out into the street, representing the diversity of ways of understanding ephemeral architecture. Among them is 'ARGI', the pavilion designed by the School of Architecture of the University of the Basque Country. Its director, Jon Begiristain, explained that it is conceived as "an extension of the teaching space with a singular shape and materiality, designed for itinerancy. A modular system that can be easily transported and assembled very quickly and that lends itself to a variety of future uses". It will be located in the nerve centre of San Sebastian, Alderdi Eder Park, in the heart of La Concha Bay.

He was accompanied by the architects Beñat Saratxaga and Gentzane Goikuria, from the Bilbao studio behark, which will build the 'Mugak/ Habitatuz' pavilion in Bilbao, the result of the line of aid announced by the Department of Territorial Planning, Housing and Transport of the Basque Government for the production of activities for the Biennial. "It allows testing the construction of a standardised modular system that serves to increase the spatial quality of housing in urban regeneration projects", they said.

Finally, Julia Ruiz-Cabello and Santiago del Águila, winners of the TAC! Urban Architecture Festival 2023 competition for San Sebastian. Both explained that their pavilion 'Lost forest', which will be installed in the city on 10 October, uses wood burnt in forest fires as a material to transfer this reality to the urban environment and attract the attention of the public to this problem.

Mugak/ will leave the ETSAM with a small exhibition, organised by the Habic cluster, which will invite the public to immerse themselves in a space of creativity and reflection, where three free-standing and illuminated wooden structures come to life with inspiring phrases related to the bases of this edition. The first, entitled 'Rebuild', and its illuminated canvases reveal phrases that inspire the idea of rebirth and overcoming challenges. The second, 'Rehabit', addresses the importance of revitalising urban spaces and giving them a new life. The third structure, 'Rethink', is a call for reflection on our relationship with the built environment and the need to question established norms. Together, they invite us to look to the future with an open and creative mindset, and represent the Mugak/ Biennial as a beacon of inspiration for architecture and art lovers, a reminder that our cities and communities can be transformed for the common good.