Artelekun zehar. 1987-2002. An Exhibition about Arteleku through the Archive

Artelekun zehar. 1987-2002. An Exhibition about Arteleku through the Archive [Photo: Isabel Azkarate]

From: Friday, 04 July 2025

To: Sunday, 11 January 2026

Artelekun zehar. 1987-2002 is the third and final chapter in Artium Museoa’s series of exhibitions dedicated to the relationship between artistic practices and pedagogy in the Basque Country. Focusing specifically on the first fifteen years of the Arteleku training and production centre, it builds upon the research undertaken in A Place to Think (2022) on experimental educational initiatives between 1957 and 1979, and edonor, denok inor ez (2024), which explored the institutionalisation processes of artistic training between 1978 and 1991.

The Arteleku Centre for Contemporary Art and Culture opened in the Loiola neighbourhood of Donostia/San Sebastián in 1987, under the auspices of the Gipuzkoa Provincial Council. Led by Santiago Eraso, the centre’s main goal was to focus on responding to the needs of contemporary art, so it immediately defined an orientation and some ways of doing based on experimentation and artistic production, with pedagogy and the transfer of knowledge at its core. Arteleku organised a host of activities, primarily in the form of workshops, seminars and exhibitions, and by the 1990s and early 2000s it had become a benchmark for artistic creation.

Beginning with a structure that prioritised artistic production by discipline according to the logic of techniques and media, it evolved over the years towards procedural ways that transcended traditional production systems and established working methods. It also welcomed international artists and voices who brought with them the latest trends and debates in contemporary creation and witnessed the development of discourses on the body and a progressive dematerialisation of art.

The exhibition takes the institution’s archive, preserved at the Gordailua Heritage Collections Centre in Gipuzkoa, as its central axis. It is complemented by a selection of works from the Collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art of the Basque Country and that of Gordailua itself. The show also features a significant collection of documents, including the Isabel Azkarate and Ricardo Iriarte archives, among others.

Curated by Mikel Onandia, Sergio Rubira, Leire Vergara and Beatriz Herráez, with the collaboration of Elena Roseras on Archives and Arantza Santesteban on Audiovisual Documentation.

 

In collaboration with:

dfg gordailua tabakalera

 

List of works

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