Prototipoak: International Biennial of New Artistic Forms

Prototipoak: International Biennial of New Artistic Forms will take place between June 1–5, showcasing the projects developed over the past year at Azkuna Zentroa - Alhóndiga Bilbao, the Society and Contemporary Culture Centre in Bilbao (Spain).

Prototipoak is a Biennale that brings together artists with unique perspectives and diverse backgrounds, who propose new experiences rooted in the specificity of site and context. Through their uses of contemporary artistic forms, in various scenarios and formats—each with their own conventions and temporalities—they each question different aspects of reality and attempt to open up opportunities for transformation.

Prototipoak continues and expands upon the work achieved within 3, 2, 1. International Meeting of New Scenic Forms between 2013 and 2015. It was born in 2016 from a desire to explore the performativity and multiplicity of the social through art, and to critically contribute to shape it from a poetic, aesthetic and political perspective.

Since its inception, place has been a central element in the project, understood not only as the stage on which life unfolds—that is, as the container or context for action—but also as that which is constituted through the things we do, through our actions in context.

It is a place of complexity. A place in constant movement—where the normal, the marginal, the uncertain and mysterious, the absurd, the obvious, the uninspiring and the truly exceptional, the superfluous and the essential, all coexist.

At Prototipoak we pay special attention to the potential for interweaving, for entwining art projects with place, encouraging interactions and connections that transcend our own practices and those of the participating artists. The 2021 Biennale features creators Sra. Polaroiska (Alaitz Arenzana & Maria Ibarretxe), José Ramón Ais, Diego Sologuren & Sébastien Tripod, Maider López, Laida Lertxundi & Ren Ebel, Elssie Ansareo, Elena Aitzkoa and Amalia Fernández.

Sra. Polaroiska (Alaitz Arenzana & Maria Ibarretxe): Hiru haiku is an audiovisual experiment inspired by the ideas of haiku, through which the artists propose three modes of contemplation: of nature and the boundaries between the visible and invisible; of the firmament that surrounds us as part of that nature; and of life through art.

José Ramón Ais: Baso bidaiariak / Bosques viajeros is a prototype linear forest designed for public space. The project proposes the installation of a linear arboretum, that diagonally intersects the space of Azkuna Zentroa’s rooftop terrace, as a garden for public use.

Diego Sologuren & Sébastien Tripod: BroadWindow is an architectural intervention aiming to encourage a porous ecological interdependence between architecture and its environment, through the installation of an experimental liminal ecosystem. A parallel proposal from this project work, exploring the same intentions within another architecture, is also being installed in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Maider López: Personaje is an interventional action within public space, revealed and presented through its documentation. The action, undertaken between April 12 and May 16, 2021, attempts to infiltrate and establish a new local character within the social fabric of the city, inserting an individual into the repeated daily situations and routines of an area of Bilbao over time.

Laida Lertxundi & Ren Ebel: Notes on Working from Home is an audiovisual programme and installation by artist filmmakers Laida Lertxundi and Ren Ebel, that reflects on domestic life as a fundamental subject and source for artistic practice.

Elssie Ansareo: BIO-INT-DÍA is a photographic installation of 21 large-scale colour photographs, installed within the windows that surround the public space of Azkuna Zentroa’s atrium, as a sensorial and emotional proposal full of colour and fantasy.

Elena Aitzkoa: Andromeda Túnel is a series of performances that will be presented in relation to the group of sculptures included within the artist’s exhibition Lendia Song, within Azkuna Zentroa’s gallery space. The performances, which will take place every morning, draw on and explore the details of an intimate encounter with a lake.

Amalia Fernández: Expografía Retrospectiva is a series of exhibited situations, brought to life by performers, whose actions draw on retrospective reconsiderations of the artist's previous performance pieces as exhibits within the shifted conventions and temporalities of a museum installation.