16 Ça Marche. Trabajos forzados. eszenAZ. Theatre 17
Alberto Cortés Analphabet. eszenAZ. Theatre
Eneko Gil & Koldo Arostegi Vulnerable. eszenAZ. Dance, theatre
20
Peripheries of Performing Arts & New Technologies ACuTe Symposium 22
Classique = Moderne. A New History of the Zinemateka II. Zinemateka
24
It happened at Azkuna Zentroa
Accompanying us this quarter are:
The Azkuna Zentroa - Alhóndiga Bilbao programme arises from the complicity of people from different disciplines who give value, contribute and enrich our proposals aimed at the different audience communities. The projects and people accompanying us this quarter, who form part of the conversations we started this year, are shown here.
Tripak Lanean. Support for Stage Processes
Lore Stessel AZ Associated Artist
Amaia Molinet AZ Associated Artist
Idoia Zabaleta AZ Associated Artist
Olatz de Andrés AZ Associated Artist
Ça Marche AZ Associated Artist
Rosa Casado AZ Associated Researcher
Ixiar Rozas AZ Associated Researcher
Inés García Babestu. Creation Support Programme
Ivonne Villamil Babestu. Creation Support Programme
Silvia Zayas Lanean. Support for Stage Processes
Beatriz Sánchez Babestu. Creation Support Programme
The exhibition Escala 1:1 is the product of the photographic research conducted by Ixone Sádaba regarding the material, symbolic, and political legacy of the Lemoiz nuclear power plant.
Curated by Carles Guerra, this artistic project invites audiences to imagine new policies that would transform the plant into a focal point for a present-day public debate about memory. Ixone Sádaba approaches this restitution exercise by screening life-sized fragments of the structures at the Lemoiz facility,
As part of the exhibition programme, a discussion will be held on April 2nd to put into words all the aspects visualised during the research, including their various ramifications. The event will feature the artist and the curator, who will be joined by Iñaki Martínez de Albéniz (sociologist, UPV) and Julia Schultz-Dornburg (architect, researcher, and photographer) to explore the ramifications of Sádaba’s work. According to Carles Guerra, her work “is not only a testament to one of the most controversial objects in the history of the Basque conflict but also bears witness to the wounds this history has inflicted, particularly on the body of photography itself.”
IXONE SÁDABA
Artist and researcher Ixone Sádaba is the director and co-founder of Moving Artists International, and a member of other organisations such as Teja and On The Move, aimed at protecting artistic practice in an emergency context.
She has held exhibitions in national and international institutions, such as the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Guggenheim Bilbao, and MOCCA Contemporary Art Museum in Toronto. Her work is included in the Guggenheim Bilbao, MNCARS, ARTIUM, MUSAC, Iberdrola and BBK collections, as well as in numerous private collections.
CARLES GUERRA
(Amposta, 1965) An art critic, professor, and researcher, Carles Guerra has held the post of Director at the Primavera Fotogràfica de Catalunya, Director at La Virreina Centre de la Imatge, Chief Curator at the Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA) and, from 2015 to 2020, Director at the Fundació Antoni Tàpies.
In addition to an extensive list of monographic exhibitions, he has curated projects such as 1979. Un monumento a instantes radicales and Antoni Tàpies. Biografía política y Tosquelles. Como una máquina de coser en un campo de trigo.
FROM 6 FEBRUARY TO 27 APRIL 2025
Exhibition Hall Free admission
PROGRAMME OF VISITS
Introductory visits
Every Thursday at 6:30 p.m. (30 min.) in the Exhibition Hall
Free admission prior online registration, until full capacity is reached
ACTIVITIES
Conversation with Ixone Sádaba, Carles Guerra, Iñaki Martínez de Albéniz and Julia Schulz-Dornburg
Wednesday April 2nd, 5:30 p.m.-8:00 p.m.
Bastida Hall
Workshop for schoolchildren with Ixone Sádaba (artist) and José Ramón Ais (artist) April 10th (sold out)
#visualarts #installation #exhibition
Chiharu Shiota
My House is your House
Curator: Tereza de Arruda
Azkuna Zentroa presents the first monographic exhibition of artist Chiharu Shiota's work to be held in Bilbao. Shiota is one of the leading figures in global contemporary art.
As a successor to Ana Mendieta and an entire generation of feminist artists of the early 1970s, Chiharu Shiota works with her body as a space for intervention, putting on performances that address the bond with the land, the past, and remembrance.
Shiota is known for her installations knitted out of wool, in which the mesh generates a dreamlike attraction, while at the same time reviving remembrance, the existence of a philosophical form and its absence.
The site-specific created to display Shiota’s art at Azkuna Zentroa is inspired by Bilbao and is in conversation with the architecture of the Alhóndiga. In this show, curated by the historian Tereza de Arruda, the colour red and large-scale creation connect the Atrium with the Exhibition Hall, in a tour of her works from her beginnings through to pieces never before exhibited.
CHIHARU SHIOTA
(Osaka, 1972) Chiharu Shiota, trained in painting (Seika University of Kyoto, 1992-1996) and the visual arts (Braunschweig University of Art 1997 - 1999 / Berlin Academy of Arts, 1999 – 2003), is an artist who lives in Berlin.
She has exhibited, inter alia, at Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Queensland Art Gallery of Modern Art (QAGoMA), Brisbane; ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medien, Karlsruhe; Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand, Wellington; Mori Museum of Art, Tokyo; Gropius Bau, Berlin; Art Gallery of South Australia; Yorkshire Sculpture Park, United Kingdom; Kochi Museum of Art; and Osaka National Art Museum. During the first quarter of 2025 she has exhibited at the Grand Palais, Paris.
She has also taken part in numerous international exhibitions such as the Oku-Noto International Art Festival, the Biennale of Sydney, the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale, and the Yokohama Triennale. In 2015, Shiota was selected to represent Japan at the 56th Venice Biennale.
FROM 27 MAY TO 28 SEPTEMBER 2025
Exhibition Hall
Free admission
PROGRAMME OF VISITS
Introductory visits
From June to September, Every Thursday at 6:30 p.m. (30 min.) in the Exhibition Hall Free admission prior online registration, until full capacity is reached
Guide aimed at families Freely available educational material for children aged 5 and over.
#liveart #eszenAZ #theatre
Dantzerti ELDARNIO-DELIRIO
The new Dance Degree class of Dantzerti, the Higher School of Dramatic Art and Dance of the Basque Country, is staging ELDARNIO-DELIRIO. This collaboration with Dantzerti is part of Azkuna Zentroa - Alhóndiga Bilbao´s strategy line aimed at supporting creation.
Gabriela Arranz, Andrés Cortés, Andrea Gallego, Maite Gandía, Aitziber Ruiz, Ane Sarasua and Libe Unibaso are performing this stage piece set in the mountain, under the direction of Jokin Oregi.
The snow has started to melt revealing the frozen secrets kept by the mountain.
Leire needs answers. She wants to find herself and needs to understand what happened on that 8K to continue with her life. Will she reach the summit? Will it satisfy her need? Will she find the answers lost in the snow
WEDNESDAY, 9 AND THURSDAY, 10 APRIL
7:00 p.m. / 75'
Auditorium
Free admission prior registration until full capacity is reached
Dancer and choreographer Janire Etxabe merges vertical dance and art with memory and popular culture using Basque nature as a support for the movement.
Atxine is her first solo flight, a suspended dance that explores emotions during different stages of life, such as birth, youth, war, and old age. Through the various possibilities of interacting with an object, she reveals how such object changes its symbolism and concept at each of these stages.
In the sound space created by composer Paula Olaz, traditional melodies like those of the string drum or xirula will encounter more industrial and modern sounds.
A woman and her headwear (buruko) represent the cultural and emotional baggage she carries throughout her life cycle via a structure that changes its symbolism in each scene. Within it, the woman will be born and find refuge. And from that same structure, she will pour out her voice, her sweat, and her life.
WEDNESDAY, 14 AND THURSDAY, 15 MAY
8:00 p.m. / 34'
Atrium of Cultures
Free admission
ARTISTIC INFORMATION
Production: Eusko JaurlaritzaGobierno Vasco, Dimegaz
Direction: Janire Etxabe
Dramaturgy: Janire Etxabe
External Perspective & Movement
Adviser: Garazi Etxaburu, Magalie Lanriot
Music: Paula Olaz
Sound: Mikel F. Krutzaga
Voices: Itziar Aizpuru, Paula Olaz, Janire Etxabe
Text: Joxean Artze
Staging: Jose Pablo Arriaga
#liveart #eszenAZ #dance #technology
Ziomara Hormaetxe
LĀTTICE
Basque choreographer Ziomara Hormaetxe presents LĀTTICE, a movement-based performance piece produced by Azkuna Zentroa as part of the European project ACuTe. Culture Testbeds for Performing Arts and New Technology, in which the Centre is a strategic partner, with support from the European Commission’s Creative Europe programme.
In a constant dialogue between body and technology, this work explores gravity as an omnipresent force that passes through the body in multiple layers: from the physical to the quantum, shaping the ways in which we experience space and movement.
The work proposes a journey through virtual spaces, multiverses, where each layer of reality opens up new possibilities of existence and connection, expanding the ways in which contemporary narratives of collaboration transform our reality.
Using a collaborative methodology rooted in a principle of uncertainty that generates textures, vibrations, and movement, the piece transforms into a dynamic stage design that immerses the audience in a mathematical space of possibilities, a vast matrix that both creates worlds and is shaped by them.
THURSDAY, 15 MAY
PREMIERE
7:00 p.m. / 40'
Auditorium
Price: check the website and AZ Info
ARTISTIC INFORMATION
Artistic direction: Ziomara Hormaetxe
Assistant to the artistic director and choreographer: Fabian Thomé
Performers: Ziomara Hormaetxe, Beatriz de Paz
New Media Artist / Artificial Life
Scenography: Jaime de los Ríos
Stage design: Jesús Jauregui
Stage production: Grupo Intermedio
Sound artist: Miguel Marín Pavón
Produced by: Azkuna Zentroa –Alhóndiga Bilbao, ACuTe. Culture Testbeds for Performing Arts and New Technology
With support from: EBB Biarritz, Ballet Malandain Biarritz, Ayuntamiento de Gernika-Lumo
#liveart #eszenAZ #suspendeddance
Maitane Sarralde DESªNUDA
Following her experience as a dancer in various national and international projects and companies, Maitane Sarralde dived into this individual proposal as both creator and performer. The outcome is DESa NUDA, her first creation.
This show arose from the search for new ways of exploring dance using a harness and the dynamics governing it, i.e. the pendulum, falling, weightlessness and suspension. Based on the materials and components Sarralde works with, a common rhetoric revolving around the knot and “hanging” elements is created.
The DESa NUDA show has been recommended by the Circus Commission of the Spanish Network of Theatres and was included in the Puncat Catalogue in Catalonia. It has also received a special mention from the Umore Azoka 2022 Jury for its creativity, research and innovation.
The theatre company Ça Marche presents Trabajos forzados, a performance project they are working on as Associate Artists at Azkuna Zentroa. The piece questions the dynamics of language and its relationship with the body, starting from the idea of silence, both chosen and imposed. In this work, Ça Marche proposes a reflection on how Western civilisation has prioritised orality, imposing it as the dominant form of communication, and seeks to explore the experience of those who are forced to relate to speech in a different way.
As usual, Ça Marche involves non-professional performers in this work, in this case from the deaf community, who put more emphasis on the specific body, far from convention and physical tradition, which prioritise standardised voice and movement.
Throughout the process, the company has established relationships with numerous associations, institutions and companies that are doing their own work and developing reflections on accessibility. The aim is to use Trabajos forzados as an opportunity to develop spaces, projects and contexts involving the deaf community “that can broaden the experience and its future footprint as much as possible".
WEDNESDAY, 28 MAY
BASQUE COUNTRY PREMIERE
7:00 p.m. / 60'
Spanish / Auditorium
Price: check the website and AZ Info
ARTISTIC INFORMATION
Director: Nico Jongen
In collaboration with: Berta Frigola
Dramaturgy: Roberto Fratini
Performer: Pepita Cedillo
Sign language interpreter: Javi Díaz
Lighting & Technical co-ordination: Júlia Bauer
Sound space: Adrià Juan
Production & Administration manager: Mariona Signes
A co-production by Azkuna Zentroa - Alhóndiga Bilbao, Conde
Duque Madrid & Ça Marche
With the support of Teatro Municipal do Porto, Théâtre de Liège & La Comédie de Reims
Ça Marche is a resident company at Nau Ivanow & Azkuna Zentroa - Alhóndiga Bilbao.
#liveart #eszenAZ #performance #theatre
Alberto Cortés
Analphabet
Analphabet, the latest stage creation of the performer and playwright Alberto Cortés, is the invention of a queer legend or myth, i.e. a romantic spirit manifesting itself to couples in natural environments while living trapped in the wound of the flesh.
This work, which premiered at the TNT 2024 Festival, exudes German romanticism and Andalusian idiosyncrasy whilst tackling the subject of abuse both received and inflicted within a couple as a construct of love.
Analphabet is a story “affected by intragender violence. Two men bearing a cross of patriarchal inheritance that, in many instances, neither queerness or effeminacy can erase”.
The Analphabet text and a work diary that includes the creation process of the piece are published in the book Siempre vengo de noche (Continta me tienes, 2024).
THURSDAY, 12 JUNE
BASQUE COUNTRY PREMIERE
7:00 p.m. / 65'
Auditorium
Price: check the website and AZ Info
ARTISTIC INFORMATION
Concept, staging, texts, direction & performance: Alberto Cortés
Violin & conversations: Luz Prado
Lighting design: Benito Jiménez
Lighting technicians: Benito
Jiménez / Cristina Bolívar
Sound: Oscar Villegas / Pablo Contreras
Technical co-ordination: Cristina Bolívar
Piano recordings: César Barco
Stage space: Víctor Colmenero
Wardrobe: Gloria Trenado
Outsider’s perspective: Mónica
Valenciano
Photography: Clementina Gades
Video: Johann Pérez Viera
Production: El Mandaíto
#liveart #eszenAZ #dance #theatre
Eneko Gil & Koldo Arostegi
in collaboration with Peru Galbete
Vulnerable
Vulnerable is a stage project resulting from the collaboration between Eneko Gil and Koldo Arostegi. This piece arises from the choreographic research on masculinity norms conducted by Eneko Gil in recent years.
After delving into the complex emotional world enclosing the virile construction process, both creators have developed a desire to explore male vulnerability.
What stories are hidden behind masculine physicalities? What silences and involuntary efforts are hidden in order not to reveal our vulnerability?
Using movement and words they will endeavour to reveal parts of themselves which are difficult to display. They will deal with the stage performance as a process to recognise themselves and present other ways of relating to vulnerability via male bodies. Composer and musician Peru Galbete will be sharing the stage with them.
THURSDAY, 26 JUNE
7:00 p.m. / 60'
Auditorium
Price: check the website and AZ Info
ARTISTIC INFORMATION
Idea & concept: Eneko Gil
Artistic direction & choreography: Eneko Gil & Koldo Arostegi
Musical composition: Peru Galbete
Performance: Eneko Gil, Koldo Arostegi & Peru Galbete
-Wheelchair users and accompanying person.* 50% DISCOUNT
-With AZ Card
-Advance purchase (1 month prior to event)
* Ticket sales only in person at AZ Info
Buy your tickets 25% discount* 30% discount
-Industry professionals
-Over 65s
-Under 30s
-Over 33% disability
-Groups of 8 or over
azkunazentroa.eus
AZ Info
Azkuna Zentroa Live Arts Season
Peripheries of Performing Arts & New Technologies Symposium
Azkuna Zentroa holds the Peripheries of Performing Arts & New Technologies Symposium as part of ACuTe. Culture Testbeds for Performing Arts and New Technology, the European innovation project regarding performing arts via technologies.
Azkuna Zentroa belongs to the European consortium of cultural centres, universities and reference creative arts organisations, which has been testing, researching and innovating in the telling of stories on stage, how they are produced and how the audience interacts with and engages with them.
Based on an interdisciplinary approach that integrates digital technologies and co-creation methodologies, a “cultural test bench” is being created aimed at testing and designing tangible prototypes for new performing arts productions and dramaturgies, likewise stage design and audience interaction.
At the symposium taking place in Bilbao, representatives from the 14 participating centres will be sharing with performing arts sector professionals the experiences put into practice during this period through talk sessions, workshops, conferences, panels and debates. The programme includes the presentation of experimental stage productions and artistic installations open to the audience. Standing out among them is LĀTTICE, Ziomara Hormaetxe’s performative dance piece based on quantum physics principles and produced by Azkuna Zentroa. (Further information: page 14).
13, 14 & 15 MAY
Free admission prior registration until full capacity is reached
#zinemateka #cinema
Classique = Moderne. A New History of the Zinemateka II
Azkuna Zentroa – Alhóndiga Bilbao is putting together the second part of its Classique = Moderne programme as a tribute to 40 years of the Zinemateka in Bilbao. The cycle takes the form of a series spread over 3 years – 2024, 2025 and 2026 – with 45 films selected in conjunction with José Julián Baquedano, who was a programme-compiler for this space when it was just starting out. These films are essential viewing more because of their impact on the history of cinema than the significance of their directors.
With this principle in mind, the second chapter of Classique = Moderne. A New History of the Zinemateka, offers us the opportunity to watch 12 masterpieces of filmmaking.
FROM 14 JANUARY TO 10 APRIL, 2025
Tuesdays and Thursdays
Golem Alhóndiga Cinemas
5€ / 4€ with AZ Card
Tuesday, +65 years: €2
(sale only at the box office)
Tickets: Cines Golem Alhóndiga box office and at golem.es
INFORMATION
Every projection is in Original Version
Request the cycle hand program in AZ Info, download it on azkunazentroa.eus or request it by sending an email with your details to info@azkunazentroa.eus, and we will get back to you.
Bande à part (1964). Jean-Luc Godard
APRIL PROGRAMME
April 1, Tuesday l 17:00
April 3, Thursday l 19:00
Presents: José Julián Baquedano
Othello (1951)
91' l OVSS l DCP
D: Orson Welles
S: Orson Welles. Theatre: William Shakespeare
C: Orson Welles, Micheál MacLiammóir, Suzanne Cloutier, Robert Coote
April 8, Tuesday l 17:00
April 10, Thursday l 19:00
The General (1926)
74' l OVSSl DCP
D: Buster Keaton, Clyde Bruckman
S: Buster Keaton, Clyde Bruckman
C: Buster Keaton, Marion Mack
ABBREVIATIONS
D: Director
S: Screenplay
C: Cast
OVSS: Original Version with Subtitles in Spanish
COMPLETE CYCLE
January 14 & 16
Ugetsu monogatari (Ugetsu) (1953)
January 21 & 23
Tokyo monogatari (Tokyo Story) (1953)
January 28 & 30
Pickpocket (1959)
February 4 & 6
The Apartment (1960)
February 11 & 13
Plácido (1961)
February 18 & 20
Los olvidados (1950)
March 4 & 6
His Girl Friday (1940)
March 11 & 13
Amarcord (1973)
March 18 & 20
Jules et Jim (1962)
March 25 & 27
Oktyabr (October) (1927)
April 1 & 3
Othello (1951)
April 8 & 10
The General (1926)
It happened at Azkuna Zentroa
Ixiar Rozas
Erritmoen segida
January, 2025
eszenAZ
Caspervek. Buster
Keaton's. Sherlock Jr. February 2, 2025
eszenAZ. Lari Produkzioak. Zaintzaren dantza
February 6, 2025
Gutun Zuria Zabalik. Cinema-Literature Event: Helena Taberna & Isaac Rosa
February 19, 2025
Gutun Zuria PRO Table: Illustrating February 26, 2025
Gutun Zuria Bilbao. International Literature Festival Conversation: Leila Guerriero & Rodrigo Fresán
February 25, 2025
CREATION
#comic #residency #exhibition
Marta Cartu, Pauline Lecerf & Cole Degenstein
Running on empty. Comics as visual poetry
International Comic Residency Exhibition
The Running on empty. Comics as visual poetry exhibition illustrates International Comic Residency 2025 artists Marta Cartu, Pauline Lecerf and Cole Degenstein’s creative process. This initiative is sponsored by Azkuna Zentroa – Alhóndiga Bilbao with Maison de la littérature, Quebec and Cité internationale de la bande dessinée et de l’image, Angoûleme.
As part of this cross-Residency, the artists are developing both individually and collectively three diverse projects in terms of their techniques, although with the same starting point: everyday life. They propose converting the mundane into poetry using different visual metaphors and narrative resources from their respective graphic imaginaria.
Likewise, the exhibition spotlights the personal experience of artistic creation, not always born from inspiration.
“Running on empty is like when you have run out of petrol, but you keep moving forward. Because despite having nothing, you continue ahead, creating. Running on empty is like making a comic”, as described by the artists.
17 MARCH TO 14 SEPTEMBER 2025
Mediateka Gallery BBK
Free admission
Marta Cartu
Bugs (provisional title)
Chosen for the International Comic Residency by Azkuna Zentroa – Alhóndiga Bilbao.
Marta Cartu is a comic creator working in the field of artistic creation and education. In recent years, she has published her first comic album, Hola Siri (2021), and self-published various short stories. Likewise she has taken part in collective exhibitions such as: Constelación Gráfica (CCCB, 2022), Cómic. Sueños e historias (Caixa forum, 2022) and Revuelta en el cómic (MACBA, 2018).
Bugs (provisional title) If stories have historically given sense to both individual and collective identity, this project questions the construction of narratives in the contemporary context, crossed by the very volatility of a gaseous society.
Pauline Lecerf
Une connexion filaire avec le monde (A cable connection with the world)
Chosen for the International Comic Residency by Cité internationale de la bande dessinée et de l’image, Angoûleme.
Pauline Lecerf lives and works in Brussels at the Atelier Meyboom. She writes comics and produces documentaries which end up adopting formats unrelated to film: performances, guided tours, sports classes, games, music on hold competitions or sound pieces.
Une connexion filaire avec le monde (A cable connection with the world) This comic strip establishes a metaphorical link between writing and hair. Life lines, expression of our individuality. Hair and writing are the footprints of our time in this world. The comic is a tribute to the haircuts, graffiti, plaits, signatures… In short, to all those lines with which we maintain a very intimate and personal relationship.
Cole Degenstein Dear Kenneth
Chosen for the International Comic Residency by Maison de la littérature in Quebec. Hailing from the prairies and based in Montréal, Cole Degenstein is an artist whose work comes in the form of illustration, comics, and poetry. Tenderness is at the core of his work, which centres itself in storytelling about intimacy, rural life, gay history, and domesticity.
Dear Kenneth is an auto-fiction comic Cole Degenstein created as a reflection on low periods in life being tied to great periods of artistic outputartists often describe being able to make their best work when they’re not doing well or are emotionally devastated.
The narrative is told through a series of stream-ofconsciousness letters written to a poet called Kenneth, emulating a series of walks in first-person view through Tokyo and Kyoto in Japan.
Babestu. Creation Support Programme - 2025
Beatriz Sánchez
Fórmulas de Cinética Doméstica [3]
Audiovisual creation and digital art are at the centre of Beatriz Sánchez's career. Her artistic practice blends traditional media such as drawing and sculpture with video, digital tools, and live performances.
In 2025, Sánchez began her residency at Azkuna Zentroa as part of the Babestu programme with Fórmulas de Cinética Doméstica [3], a project that keeps the focus on animation and the moving image whilst also returning to hands-on work, giving free rein to her imagination.
With Fórmulas de Cinética Doméstica [3], the artist envisions transforming her workspace into an experimental research lab where she will develop a series of mechanised sculptural artifacts. “These moving parts consist of engines, mini video projections, everyday objects, and figures, combining to form dynamic assemblies that seem to come to life (automatons)”, explains the artist. They are “lowtech, decadent, and poetic artifacts that precariously balance various fragile elements in an awkward mechanical dance.”
#laboratory #sculpturalartifacts #movingimage
Estibaliz Sádaba Murguia
RUINAS (cuaderno de notas experimental)
Through her work, Estibaliz Sádaba Murguia aims to create a space for reflection and debate to facilitate an artistic and feminist exploration of the context in which we live.
In recent years she has focused her work on the relationship between women's bodies and the inhabited space, examining how these two elements interact in both public and private environments, placing a particular emphasis on gender perspective.
During her Babestu residency, she will be developing RUINAS (cuaderno de notas experimental), a work that will include a set of texts, sounds and performances. To this end, the artist draws on the writing of poetic experimental texts and manifestos in the first person as a starting point, which will subsequently be developed through the aforementioned sound, graphic and performative resources. “These texts, along with their derivative products, aim to highlight the work that women have carried out within the domestic sphere, and reveal their discomfort (Friedan)”, as explained by Estibaliz Sádaba.
#experimentalwriting #texts #sounds #performance
Inés García
El tacto del contacto
Sight, sound, and touch traverse the most recent installations, sculptures, and experimental films of artist and filmmaker Inés García . Her latest project, El tacto del contacto, explores the development of cinematic language and its arrangement within the exhibition space.
The work, which began in 2024, captures the creative processes behind handmade objects such as a wooden bowling pin, a spherical cake, and lace embroidery. Her first “projection booth,” developed in collaboration with architect Diego Sologuren, will be expanded and solidified in 2025 during her residency at Azkuna Zentroa as part of the Babestu programme.
In El tacto del contacto the artist immerses herself with her analogue camera in “the art of working with the hands, where repetitive, rhythmic movements reveal a silent dialogue with time and material”. She conceives the editing of images “from a state in which a firm gaze attempts to understand the encounter with the image as though it were a tactile experience, an editing process that can be seen and heard as much as it is touched”. The ultimate goal is to create a new "projection booth" specifically designed for viewing one of the film pieces.
#installation #experimentalcinema
Ivonne Villamil Meteoro
Ivonne Villamil, a visual and sound artist, works at the intersection of art and science using accessible practices and technologies that focus on listening devices and methods. Her work explores the intimate connections between matter, memory, and territory, drawing from geophony, or the sounds of the earth.
Meteoro, a project Villamil is developing as a resident of the Babestu programme, arises from the urgent need for social and cultural action and reflection on climate change.
“I aim to work collaboratively in the realms of sound and visual art, using listening methods and devices to capture atmospheric phenomena on earth and in the cosmos, employing open-source software, DIY methods, and low-tech field recording”, the artist explains. The goal is “to provoke immersive, experiential situations, encounters, and spaces that bridge art and science, connected to earth and cosmic sciences (meteorology, space weather, astrophysics)”.
#sound #climate #cosmos #science
Lanean Residency 2025. Support for Stage Processes
Silvia Zayas
Material girls
Artist Silvia Zayas will launch her new project, Material Girls, in 2025, as part of the “Lanean. Stage Processes Support Programme”.
According to the author, her work “draws on the autobiographical to explore the collective trauma inherited by a second generation of young girls. They are the daughters/nieces of ex-combatants (conscripted by the Portuguese regime) who recently returned from Guinea-Bissau and other former colonies after the war for independence from Portugal. The story is re-imagined through childhood memories filled with silences, syncretisms, and ghosts”.
The project will take the form of a “live piece developed through collective experiences with ex-combatants and women of my generation from various suburban and domestic settings in Porto. It will combine elements from childhood imagination, without hierarchies between elements”.
During her residency at Azkuna Zentroa, she plans to develop the formal and choreographic aspects of the project using live cinema devices, and share experimental bodily practices to generate mental imagery. #livearts #cinema
Tripak ENCOUNTERS
Two years after the premiere of Platea, Tripak has started outlining ENCOUNTERS (tentative title), their new stage project. Part of their creative process will take place in 2025 at Azkuna Zentroa within the framework of the Lanean programme, which supports live arts creation.
According to the Basque performing arts company, ENCOUNTERS “explores 'abandoned' spaces where we find overlooked human traces that, though grey, reveal a wildness. (...) The space we inhabit is an open interior where mundane, unremarkable objects lose their purpose in the open air, becoming discarded items that decorate the bedroom of an unknown host who welcomes us into its intimacy without ever looking at us”.
The residency at Azkuna Zentroa marks a starting point for this new project, where the team conjure up an envisioned place. “From there, we invent the remaining elements of the work - materials that gradually come together to create the scene, like a painting in motion,” they explain.
#stage #theatre #newlanguages
Azkuna Zentroa Associated Researchers2024-2025
A programme aimed at supporting and fostering the analysis and production related to current creation, that favours the exchange between artistic communities, audiences and other professionals.
Rosa Casado
Multidisciplinary artist and researcher Rosa Casado's work focuses on questions related to performance and critical spatial practice.
In 2025 she is developing the sound and performative piece Here Be Dragons as part of La ilusoria estabilidad del suelo, a project undertaken in her role as an Associate Researcher at Azkuna Zentroa. Through this work, she explores which elements fade away, become blurred, or emerge when the terrestrial is considered from the perspective of the aqueous bodies covering the planet.
Here Be Dragons is an attempt to map the planet’s twilight areas. Above sea level, twilight refers to the space and time when the world sways between night and day. Whereas below sea level, twilight refers to the ocean’s intermediate area where little sunlight penetrates, a dark, cold, high pressure environment that is unimaginably vast, barely known, relatively unexplored and highly vulnerable, where the planet’s largest migration travels its waters daily in an immense wave of life.
#performativepractices
Ixiar Rozas
Una serie de ritmos
As a writer and researcher, Ixiar Rozas works with voice, language and sounds. Her research is a continuum of previous spaces.
To listen to Una serie de ritmos and, right there, to hold the writing. That material contains a rhythmic breathing, a source of energy. And new fermentations will emerge from those compositions. There are ancient words that we use in Basque to denote nudity. And there are words, perhaps on the verge of disappearing, with their own phonetic variants and phonemes which can be heard echoing through the valleys. These materials will be deployed at Azkuna Zentroa to work with other artists and to continue sharing.
Artistic creation support programme that accompanies artists whose works represent an inspiring look at artistic languages.
Ça Marche
Ça Marche is a performing arts company founded in 2015 and based in Barcelona. Its creative projects reflect on the dialogue between theatre, performance, movement and visual arts.
In their research as Associated Artists at Azkuna Zentroa they have worked on Incendis, a stage-installation setup that deals with historical, emotional, documentary and artistic aspects regarding fire and blazes.
They are likewise developing the Trabajos forzados stage project, which will be presented at Prototipoak Bilbao, the International Biennial of New Artistic Forms at Azkuna Zentroa. The piece questions the dynamics of language and its relationship with the body based on the idea of silence, both chosen and imposed.
#theatre #performance #movement
Idoia Zabaleta
Idoia Zabaleta (Vitoria, 1970) is a choreographer and biologist. Her research and production proposal entitled Zintza Lilura consists of the development of a device in relation to the bodily axis, holding fast, and balance, in which kinetic art, bodily health, and kinesiological tuning all converge. During the creation stage, she will work with artists from the Basque context, and the device will be tested with personnel from the Centre. The project concludes with the unveiling and testing by the community of different audiences at Azkuna Zentroa.
As part of this process, the work Pupa, pupita, pupila. Masaje de la vision will be presented in March at the Auditorium. This work is part of her line of individual performances such as massages and other devices, based on body perception or what she calls “dance movement 0”.
#movement #kineticart #corporalhealth
Lore Stessel
Flemish artist Lore Stessel (Bélgica, 1987) explores the interrelationship between photography and painting. Through her project Poetry of the Gang, she explores working on the beauty of daily routines, small gestures, and the power of movement. This quarter she will start meeting dancers from this background to create spaces for what is ‘accidental’ and ‘unexpected’, capturing them photographically.
#photography #dance #movement
Amaia Molinet
Artist Amaia Molinet (Lodosa, 1988) works through the medium of photography, embracing it as an expansive field. As an AZ Associated Artist, her project Tierra Quemada offers a healing gaze towards places within the natural landscape of our nearby surroundings where some form of harm or violence has taken place. Although such harm or violence has never been repaired, she rechannels the energy of that violence into a force for regeneration.
At the intersection of art, archaeology and magic, she has carried out fieldwork through the vestiges of Biscay’s Iron Belt. She is currently working on the publication that will provide printed support for these experiences.
#photography #memory #territory
Olatz de Andrés
Following a career as a dancer and choreographer, Olatz de Andrés has set up the company L ŏkke, a structure for choreographic development. As an AZ Associated Artist, she has created Tiempo como cuerpo, a work focused on time as a choreographic tool.
So far, the four-hour-long durational piece-experience Time is a Muscle was premiered in October at the Centre, and an exhibition featuring the Hacer Tiempo, Entre 26 y 62 Artean, and Time is a Muscle research and creation processes has been held. She is currently working on the publication as a record of this entire process.
#dance #movement #body
ACuTe. Culture Testbeds for Performing Arts and New Technology - 2025
Ziomara Hormaetxe
LĀTTICE
The Basque choreographer Ziomara Hormaetxe will be completing the creation of L TTICE during this term. This new performative piece in motion, produced by Azkuna Zentroa, is part of the European project ACuTe. Culture Testbeds for Performing Arts and New Technology, in which the Centre is a strategic partner with the support of Creative Europe. European Commission.
Through an ongoing dialogue between body and technology, “this piece explores gravity as an omnipresent force that permeates the body in multiple layers: from the physical to the quantum, thus shaping the ways in which we experience space and movement,” states the creator.
The piece suggests “a journey through virtual spaces and multiverses, where each layer of reality unveils new possibilities for existence and connection, thereby broadening the ways in which contemporary collaborative narratives reshape our understanding of reality,” explains Ziomara Hormaetxe.
L TTICE will be premiered on May as part of eszenAZ, the Live Arts Season at Azkuna Zentroa.
Imparted by the artists Ixone Sádaba and José Ramón Ais
Ixone Sádaba. Escala 1:1
What is energy? What is its relationship to nature? This workshop analyses energy creation as a natural process, but also as a contamination process among species.
When the Lemoiz nuclear power station project was abandoned in 1984, nature’s entropy began its arduous task of returning the concrete covered territory back to its original state.
Based on the herbarium created with the plants occupying the old power station, this workshop analyses their capacity to convert light into energy. The plants capture sunlight via photosynthesis and chlorophyll to convert it into chemical energy, essential for their growth and the ecosystem.
Using the photosensitive quality of chlorophyll, students can delve into photographic processes such as anthotype (a technique using the photosensitive capacity of plants to generate images) and experience the power station ruins landscape through the development of a herbarium.
ESKOLA
THURSDAY, 10 APRIL
11:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m.
Hall Exhibition Room
Students from 3rd year
Secondary to 2nd year 6th
Form
Arranged with schools
Share the story of your home
Chiharu Shiota. My House is your House
In May, Azkuna Zentroa – Alhóndiga Bilbao is presenting the work of international contemporary art icon Chiharu Shiota. For her exhibition My House is your House, the Japanese artist has projected a collective piece that will integrate the idea of home. To this end, she invites all those people interested to send a letter or a drawing describing their personal interpretation of a home. These contributions will be incorporated into the large-scale installation, which will be on display from May 27th in the Exhibition Room. For more information, see page 10.
BEFORE MAY 1
How to participate
Write a letter or draw a picture on a piece of white paper sharing your thoughts on your home.
Come to the Centre and place the material in the box located in the Atrium of Cultures. You can also take a picture or scan your letter or drawing. Send it to info@azkunazentroa.eus before May 1st with LETTER TO CHIHARU SHIOTA in the subject line.
The winner of 11 Oscars, this film with enormous influence tells the story of revenge and redemption of a Jewish prince, namely Judah Ben-Hur, who was betrayed by a childhood friend and taken as a slave. He will fight against the oppression of Roman, whilst finding Christianity in the process.
Tuesday, 13 May
Luis García Berlanga. La escopeta nacional (1978)
Berlanga created a harsh unforgettable portrait of the late Francoist politics and business class through the misadventures of a Catalan industrialist during a shooting trip, paid for by himself, to rub shoulders with high society and expand his business.
Tuesday, 3 June
Hayao Miyazaki. Mi vecino Totoro (1988)
Overflowing with that sense of wonder Miyazaki tends to embed in the natural world, this animation classic tells us the story of two sisters, Satsuki and Mei, who move to rural Japan with their father, where they meet a giant (and cuddly) spirit of the forest.
Ipuin txiki
A family activity to encourage reading at an early age likewise a habit of reading outside school. We will learn about the book as an object together with some narrative techniques to enjoy reading as a family. 4-6 years old
Free admission prior registration at the Txikiteka attention point on the same day as the activity.
ADULT AUDIENCE
TUESDAYS: 8 APRIL, 13 MAY, 3 JUNE
6:30 p.m. / 60'
Mediateka BBK: TK101
Free admission upon registration on the website until full capacity is reached
FAMILY AUDIENCE
SATURDAYS: 5 APRIL, 3, 17, 31 MAY, 7, 14 JUNE
12:00 p.m. / 60'
Mediateka BBK: TK101 4-6 years old
Essential Comic Dialogues
Wednesday, 23 April
Max. Hechos, dichos, ocurrencias y andanzas de Bardín el superrealista (2006)
The first work to receive the National Comic Award, this collection of strips rich in tributes to Buñuel along with other artistic and avantgarde influences blends visual simplicity with a captivatingly intricate narrative.
Wednesday, 21 May
Brian K. Vaughan; Fiona Staples. Saga (2012)
In Saga, we continue with the story of Alana and Marko, a couple who find love amidst the chaos of war to form a family with the birth of their daughter. Their goal is to leave everything behind, risking everything in their life to bring a new one into this dangerous ancient universe.
Wednesday, 18 June
Chabouté. Moby Dick (2010)
Chabouté makes use of black and white, stillness and movement in a striking adaptation of Herman Melville’s novel, a monument to Captain Ahab’s obsessive pursuit of a great white whale.
ADULT AUDIENCE
WEDNESDAY: 23 APRIL, 21 MAY, 18 JUNE
6:30 p.m. / 60'
Mediateka BBK: TK202
Free admission upon registration on the website until full capacity is reached
AZ publications
Azkuna Zentroa publications contain contemporary artistic practice for its outreach and circulation.
Book
Behatokia. Observar y transformar la ciudad desde las prácticas artísticas y culturales
Metakoadernoak. The creative notebooks of Azkuna ZentroaAlhóndiga Bilbao
Macarena Recuerda Shepher, Amparo Badiola, Gema Intxausti, Susana Talayero, Ander Pérez Puelles, M. Benito Píriz, Julia Martos, Fermín Jiménez Landa, Jon Gerediaga, Lorea Burge
Spanish / English / Basque. • 5 €/unit
Book
La ola en la mente
Isabel de Naverán
Spanish Pages: 252 13 x 21 cm
18€
Exhibition catalogue
Una voz para Erauso.
Epílogo para un tiempo trans Cabello/Carceller
Spanish / English / Basque
Pages: 316 24€
dendAZ
This is Basque Design Merkatua
THIS IS BASQUE DESIGN MERKATUA
Exhibition of projects and products in Azkuna Zentroa's Atrium 11, 12 and 13 July 2025
Atrium of Cultures
OPEN CALL
If you are interested in taking part in This Is Basque Design Merkatua to showcase your brand, register before 1 May at azkunazentroa.eus or by scanning the QR code
AZKUNA ZENTROA, THE FILM SPOT IN BILBAO
Film Sozialak
International Invisible Film Festival
Zinemakumeak gara!
Women Directors' Film Festival
ZINEBI
Bilbao International Festival of Documentary and Short Film
Zinexit
Film & Human Rights Festival
FANT
Fantasy Film Festival
Zinemateka
Stable programming with classic and contemporary film cycles
Zinemaldia
Donostia Zinemaldia at Azkuna Zentroa
Zinegoak
Bilbao LGTBIQ+ Film & Performing Arts Festival
Basque Dok Festival
Bilbao International Festival of Contemporary Image
Golem Alhóndiga Cinema
Commitment to cinema throughout the year
Also in Azkuna Zentroa:
Anti-racist Empowerment School
The reading group of the Anti-racist Empowerment School engages in in-depth readings of books written by activists, intellectuals, artists, and philosophers from the Global South.
FROM APRIL TO DECEMBER
One Monday a month
+ Info: inmigracion@bilbao.eus
Basque Fest
A Basque culture and avant-garde festival that showcases a diverse range of cultural and artistic expressions from the Basque world in several venues in Bilbao.
FROM 16 TO 19 APRIL
+ Info: basquefest.bilbao.eus
Bilbao Fantasy Film Festival
A festival held every month of May that showcases both classic films and the latest innovations in the genre.
FROM 2 TO 10 MAY
+ Info: fantbilbao.eus
Zinemagileen artean
14th Caravan of Women Filmmakers
Itinerant festival organised by the Egyptian production company Klaketa Árabe and Kultura Communication y Desarrollo KCD ONGD with the aim of shattering the glass ceiling in the film industry.
Gau Zuria
Bilbao White Night
Over the course of two days, various cultural venues in Bilbao host contributions from local, national, and international creators in the fields of music, performing arts, literature, light, and sound.
iF Design Student Award 2025
Prizes awarded by this organisation, focused on supporting emerging design talents from around the world, to foster networks between young designers, companies, and industries.
Zinegoak
22nd Bilbao LGTBIQ+ Film & Performing Arts Festival
An international festival that encompasses feature-length and short documentaries and fiction films, likewise experimental works, performance pieces, and other activities.
Info: kcd-ongd.org/caravana
Info: bilbao.eus
Info: zinegoak.com 19 JUNE + Info: ifdesign.com 13 AND 14 JUNE
FROM 23 TO 30 JUNE
Chiharu Shiota
ESKERRIK ASKO!
We appreciate the support of the private and public bodies accompanying us as part of their commitment to the territory, working with our mission to connect society and contemporary culture.
Promotor
Strategic Patron
Associates
Cultural alliances
Cultural alliances: Live arts
Technological Partner
City alliances
Our network is open to any organisation interested in taking part in this project which contributes to the creation of a more creative, critical and diverse society through art.
Programme subsidised by Bizkaia Provincial Council
The Azkuna Zentroa stage areas are equipped with digital technologies that improve the space and your experience thanks to the Next Generation European Funds assigned to the modernisation and sustainable management of the Basque performing arts infrastructures. Loyalty programmes
GENERAL INFORMATION
CENTRE OPENING HOURS
Every day from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Consult special times online
GUIDED TOURS
Guided tours of the building
A one-hour tour of the Alhóndiga to learn about the history of the building, its transformation and the current project.
Free entry prior registration: AZ Info / 944 014 014 / info@azkunazentroa.eus azkunazentroa.eus
Groups
· Reserve the date and time at least 72 hours in advance at AZ Info, by phone 944 014 014 or by email info@azkunazentroa.eus
· Prices: Basque or Spanish: € 60 for groups. English or French: € 70 for groups. Associations and teaching centers (check in advance).
Exhibition tours
· Half-hour introductory tours to contextualise exhibitions:
Ixone Sádaba . Escala 1:1
Exhibition Hall
Until 27 April, every Thursday at 6:30 p.m. (Basque or Spanish, depending on demand)
Chiharu Shiota . My House is your House Exhibition Hall
From June to September, every Thursday at 6:30 p.m. (Basque or Spanish, depending on demand)
· Free entry prior registration: AZ Info / 944 014 014 / info@azkunazentroa.eus azkunazentroa.eus
AZ CARD
The AZ card lets you enjoy a wide range of cultural, social and physical activities at our centre. With this card you will receive periodical information regarding all the activities taking place, and obtain interesting discounts and advantages. The renewal of the card due to loss and/or modification of data has a cost of 3 euros.
We should like to remind you that the AZ Card is personal and non-transferable. Please bring it with you at all times to obtain discounts when purchasing your tickets at AZ Info.
DISCOUNTS AND SPECIAL PRICES
Azkuna Zentroa – Alhóndiga Bilbao fosters accessible cultural diversity for everyone. To this end, and amongst other measures, it offers reduced rates for groups, professionals, students, young adults, people with functional diversity and other collectives, prior proof of identity.
GOLEM ALHÓNDIGA CINEMAS
Consult the updated information at golem.es
YANDIOLA, THE BOAR, HOLA BAR
Consult the updated information on yandiola.com
ACCESSIBILITY
Azkuna Zentroa is a friendly, open and accessible space for everyone.
We work on the continuous improvement of the space and the programme to ensure that all audiences have a rewarding experience, are able to participate in the creative processes, and experience, share and enjoy culture on equal terms. Should you require any specific information, please proceed to Az Info, the information point located in the Atrium.
Azkuna Zentroa has the AENOR certificate of Universal Accessibility according to the UNE 170001-1 Standard
Check the Center's accessibility measures on our website: azkunazentroa.eus
