Artium Museoa, Museum of Contemporary Art of the Basque Country presents the international performance season and exhibition entitled Lazos mecánicos. Prácticas performativas en el museo (Mechanical Bonds: Performative Practices at the Museum, from 10 June until 30 July 2023), which forms part of Plazaratu, a crosscutting project that activates various actions in the museum’s programme to generate new ways of inhabiting its public space. Lazos mecánicos is curated by Itziar Okariz and Catalina Lozano and features performances and workshops by artists such as Jon Mikel Euba, Naomi Rincón Gallardo, Sus Zwick & Muda Mathis, Tripak collective, Yael Davids, Amaia Urra and Jeremiah Day, as well as a project by Erick Beltrán in collaboration with people geographically and/or affectionately linked to the museum, plus concerts by Garazi Navas and Les Reines Prochaines. Admission to all the activities is free. The exhibition includes works from the museum’s collection as chosen by the curators in collaboration with Yael Davids, alongside pieces by artists participating in the season and documentation. The exhibition will remain open in Artium Museoa’s A3 Gallery until 30 July.

Lazos mecánicos stems from the desire to consider the museum space and the relationships built within it based on the bodies that inhabit it, attempting to create moments of porosity between the interior and exterior of the building through the varied practices of a number of artists and collectives. Far from proposing a unifying thesis that encompasses these practices, Lazos mecánicos assumes diversity and difference as the core values encouraging the selection of artists who make up this programme. It is about different ways of articulating artistic practice with space and the relationships produced within it, and also their potential to disrupt, subvert or rethink it, which will become present at four specific moments: 10 and 24 June and 1, 7, 8, 13 and 14 July.

The title of the project is a product of chance, as it is the recently discovered title of a painting by María Paz Jiménez (Valladolid, 1909 – San Sebastian 1975) that until now had been listed as “untitled” (1968) in the museum databases associated with its collection. The painting is an almost monochrome canvas depicting several abstract forms crowded together as in a sci-fi landscape. The decision was made to replace the frame of the painting for the exhibition Bilduma Hau Colección. Movimientos elementales (Bilduma Hau Colección: Elementary Movements) and the inscription “Lazos mecánicos” appeared on a piece of tape stapled to the wooden stretcher.

Lazos mecánicos forms part of the efforts articulated around Plazaratu, a crosscutting project that activates various actions in the museum’s programme and seeks to generate new ways of inhabiting its public space.

Programme

10 June
5 pm: 29 Condiciones para una imposición. Para la organización de un cuerpo que se pone a disposición de la escritura, Jon Mikel Euba. A4 Gallery
6.30 pm: Viaje de formol, Naomi Rincón Gallardo. A4 Gallery

24 June
6.30 pm: Pulfiki pulkiki, Amaia Urra. A4 Gallery
7.30 pm: "…abesten saiatu nintzen…" "…baina ez zizuten entzuten…", Garazi Navas. A4 Gallery

1 July
5 pm: Performance, Sus Zwick & Muda Mathis. A4 Gallery
6.30 pm: Tripak Pasiaran II, Tripak. Walking from Plaza Simón Bolívar until Artium Museoa. A4 Gallery
7.30 pm: Concert, Les Reines Prochaines. Plaza Gallery

7 July
10 am: Jeremiah Day workshop. A4 Gallery

8 July
5 pm: Nueva performance en el elizate, Jeremiah Day. Portico of the church of San Vicente
6.30 pm: Hor dago, Erick Beltrán. A4 Gallery

13-14 July
Feldenkrais Method workshop entitled A Daily Practice with Works from the Collection, Yael Davids. A4 Gallery