The Mugak/ Biennial Presents Its Program for Vitoria-Gasteiz on the Virgen Blanca Wall

2025 October 23

• After several days installed in the Virgen Blanca Square—during which the public has interacted with it in large numbers—Utopia: No Entry became today the stage for the opening of the Biennial in the city.
• The installation, a critique of the walls that divide the world, has fulfilled its purpose from the very first day: it was intended as a vehicle for expression, and the city embraced it as such.
• Today marks the beginning of the Euskadi International Architecture Biennial Mugak/ in Vitoria-Gasteiz, which will run until November 13 with exhibitions, workshops, performances, and other activities.

23 | 10 | 2025

The Euskadi International Architecture Biennial Mugak/ presented its program for Vitoria-Gasteiz this morning, at the wall that has divided Virgen Blanca Square since last week. The installation, titled Utopía: Prohibido el paso, serves as a critique of the walls and borders of today’s world.

The main architectural event of the Atlantic Arc, promoted by the Basque Government’s Department of Housing and Urban Agenda, launched its fifth edition on October 9 with the opening of its main exhibition, Eu-topias, Ou-topias, and has since inaugurated the pavilions and programming in Donostia and Bilbao.

Today it was Vitoria-Gasteiz’s turn—the first time the Mugak/ Biennial has created an ephemeral installation in the city. The chosen piece is the red wall that has stood in the emblematic square since last week.

In this setting, the City Councillor for Urban Model, Urban Planning, Housing, Cleaning, and Environment, Borja Rodríguez, stated:

“Beyond serving as a canvas for the public, this wall delves into the roots of Vitoria-Gasteiz’s history. It crosses the southern part of Virgen Blanca Square, and its location is justified by the study of the city’s medieval wall traces, recreating here the reconstruction of a fictional extension of that wall. Likewise, we are two weeks away from marking 36 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, yet today architecture is still used as a tool of segregation. Some world powers, such as the United States or Israel, continue to build walls that divide the world into a ‘good half and a bad half,’ as Rem Koolhaas describes.”

The curator of the fifth Mugak/ Biennial, María Arana, also referred to the idea of borders that divide societies:

“Architecture has the ability to connect, but also to separate people. It serves an essential function as a tool of unity, of building community, but, like utopias and dystopias, it can also become an instrument of social segregation. Walls like this one create borders, and there are architectures that build social inequalities. Yet today we speak of the opposite—the power of architecture as a tool for social cohesion.”

The intervention proposing this reflection was created by architect and artist Sebastián Bayo. Built in wood, it was sponsored by the company Egoin and carried out with the collaboration of the COAT Araba, which provided a building surveyor to coordinate its execution.

The project approaches the concept of utopia through its paradox: it builds a wall in order to question the very existence of walls. From the beginning, it sought to provoke both reflection and reaction against the wall itself, turning it into a means of expression—and that is precisely what has happened since day one. Citizens of Gasteiz have been engaging with it since its construction, and today it stands as a testament to that civic participation.

As Bayo himself noted today:

“Citizens are responding en masse to the pavilion’s call for participation. From the moment assembly was completed, the people of Vitoria made it their own—intervening in it playfully and with such energy that, even before the project was officially presented, it’s already hard to find areas still showing their original red color.”

Likewise, the Basque Government’s Director of Housing, Land, and Architecture, Pablo García Astrain, stated:

“The massive public response to this wall confirms Mugak/’s success in finding new formats that bring architecture and its reflections closer to all audiences.”

The Biennial Also Intervenes in the Wall

Fulfilling its function as a medium for artistic expression, the wall will also serve as the backdrop for one of the exhibitions that the Biennial brings to Vitoria-Gasteiz this year—one that is symbolically connected to it. The exhibition Interwoven at the Border, by the School of Architecture, Art and Design (EAAD) of Tecnológico de Monterrey and curated by Zaida Muxí, is now on view. Its chosen location serves as a metaphor for the wall built by Trump on the U.S.–Mexico border, highlighting projects led by women architects, artists, and sociologists working in that region.

However, this photographic exhibition does not portray the border as a limit, but as a pretext to shed light on the networks and projects that are interwoven across the territory—showcasing how Mexican architects, artists, designers, and citizens have developed collective, sensitive, and transformative actions on both sides of the line that separates (and connects) Mexico and the United States.

Program Running Until November 13

Today marks the start of the Mugak/ Biennial’s program in Vitoria-Gasteiz for its fifth edition, aimed at bringing architecture closer to the public. This morning featured a roundtable with the three awardees of the Onsite Mugak/ competition, which selected ephemeral architectural proposals for Vitoria-Gasteiz. In addition to Bayo, participants included Furii Studio, who, together with Jonas Klaassen, won second prize, and Sergi Viñals (Hue Studio), who, along with Lautaro Longo, received an honorable mention.

All of them presented their ideas and discussed the notion of utopia from their respective perspectives. Starting today, these three projects—and all others submitted to the Onsite Mugak/ call—are on display at the COAVN Araba headquarters, where visitors can see how each team envisioned an intervention in Virgen Blanca Square.

In the coming days, several workshops will take place. The first, on October 25, will be led by Maushaus and the No Man’s Land collective: Architecture Without Building. Aimed at adults and families, this workshop will create an ephemeral structure using hoops, inspired by the utopian projects of architect Yona Friedman. It will begin at 11:00 a.m., followed by a performance at 12:30 p.m. by the local company Two Much Circus, which will interpret the resulting structure.

On October 31, the transdisciplinary studio Lugadero will offer We Make Cities, a workshop that invites participants to imagine utopian cities through generative AI. This “machine for rethinking Vitoria-Gasteiz collectively” will take place at the IDarte School, and the resulting images will be incorporated into the Biennial’s main exhibition.

Another workshop will explore the concept of hospitality in Vitoria-Gasteiz. Titled Everyday Utopias: Urban Exploration of Hospitality in Vitoria-Gasteiz, it is organized by a group of professors from the School of Architecture of the University of Navarra (ETSAUN) and led by Italian architect and Università Roma Tre professor Francesco Careri.

The goal of the workshop is to explore the city through the lens of hospitality. It is open to anyone interested in discovering the city from a new perspective. The sessions will take place over three days, from November 6 to 8, both at the Montehermoso Cultural Center and throughout the city—seeking gestures that will result in a “map of hospitality.” The workshop will begin with a lecture by Careri himself.

November 13 will mark the final day for both the wall and the Biennial’s activities in Vitoria-Gasteiz. On that day, a talk will be held at the COAVN Araba headquarters with the authors of the three ephemeral architectural installations that have presided over the emblematic squares of Euskadi’s three capitals: alongside Sebastián Bayo will be the creators of Bilbao’s pavilion (Etxenoi, by AMA Architectural Office) and Donostia’s (Lightness and Protest: Embroidery as a Feminine Utopia, by Izaskun Chinchilla Architects).

All activities are free of charge, although some require prior registration. The full program and registration forms are available on the Mugak/ Biennial’s website.