Artium Museum, presents a third exhibition of the permanent collection entitled Rumbos. La Colección III. (Directions. Collection III). It does so following its initial commitment both, to display its funds in a rotary and temporal basis, and to offer different viewpoints to enrich art consciousness. Resulting from a deep artistic analysis, this new presentation of the permanent collection focus on the notions of voyage, trajectory, direction; that is to say, on the different directions the artists take along their lives to create art. Thus, the exhibition displayed in the southern gallery, presents a selection of artists with two or more works belonging to the museum funds. Being displayed together, these works (first decades of the 20th century until present day) offer the viewer the opportunity to identify the different directions artists have taken in their art creation.

The history of Art and that of artists themselves, is full of starting points and reaching ends, crossroads and turns. Artists, along their lives, follow uncertain routes, without fixed direction, although possibly obeying an intuition. This drifting leads them to paths which will, later on, end up in the materialisation of art. It makes them adopt different attitudes and offer distinct proposals, all of which are very personal and unique. Some artists have unpredictable trajectories. They undergo abrupt and visceral changes, moving, for example, from figuration to abstraction in a very short span of time. Others, evolve in a rather more lineal and smooth manner. Many artists, in their endless search for new means of creation, decide to abandon or temporarily put aside painting and sculpture to develop new artistic expressions such as photography and video. Others, just borrow more interesting and convenient elements of these new disciplines to test their limits. Equally interesting are those groups of artists who, true to one idea, trajectory o creative language, offer a more lineal and even artistic trajectory. Numberless interests, circumstances, obsessions and meditations determine the direction and fate of each artist.

Wishing to transmit the difficult path artists walk along for art sake, the southern gallery of the museum, which has been completely transformed for such purpose, discloses the exhibition in a labyrinthic and confusing manner. Within the gallery, the different artists are linked together by means of, either their works, themes and procedures, or the interests arising in a particular generation. In the two first displaying spaces, the beginning and present day of both, the artist' trajectory, and Spanish contemporary art is disclosed, thus, showing the traces left in their way, as well as where they have moored. After visiting the exhibition, the documentation room offers the visitor the possibility of deepening into a better understanding of each artist's trajectory.

Directions. Collection IIIoffers, as well, a broader and more global view of our current art. There are no hierarchies based on well-known and less known artist when exhibiting the art pieces. Genres, styles and techniques are treated equally, not giving emphasis on one in detriment of other. The exhibition's aim is to show how the different direction taken when creating art are boundless; and that the artistic trajectory is shaped through seeking, exploring and combining all kinds of artistic means, languages, influences and experiences. Artists are adventurers who explore the world of ideas, forms and expressive codes. They reflect their own epoch in a harsh way, thus making sometimes difficult to place them in time. All of them make up the reality of Spanish art in the 20th and 21st Century, although they could be transposed to any corner of the world.

Co-ordination and commissioner: Permanent Collection and Artistic Analysis Department.
Montage: Arteka S.L.
Insurance: Aón Gil and Carvajal

Acknowledgement to the National Museum Reina Sofía, to the Town Hall of Vitoria and to the Guillermo Osama Gallery.