MAITE LEYÚN ON THE NEW MIKELDI “A few days ago, I saw how Facebook censored two photos that had been posted in relation to a theory about the authorship of the famous prehistoric sculpture known as the Venus of Willendorf. The theory considered the possibility that the figure may have been made by a woman, using herself as her model. A view of a naked woman from above was compared with another similar view of the figure. The images were deleted from the social network. We are no longer scandalised by the idea of images being censored (in this case, because of nakedness) and it seems like what is least important in this story is the representation and functionality of that woman. We talk about male and female authors and the media… but not about the forms, the content or the processes. We have grown up asking ourselves why things are done, lending more importance to the reason than to the process. But one of the qualities of art is that the WHAT and the HOW go together. What the new Mikeldi is and how it was made are also two questions that go hand in hand. Starting out from a figure made thousands of years ago, I aimed to create a new form that was not reminiscent of anything we had already seen but that reminded us of the Mikeldi. Revisiting former characteristics, I decided to recover the idea of inscriptions and put them inside the disc, the central element of union between the original and this new piece. Inscriptions that will be used to acknowledge the work of new authors at this film festival. So, we have a ceramic object that, based on an ancient sculpture, intends to be a new form used to acknowledge the work of people who do care about how things are done while also making sure that they are saying something.” The poster for the 60th festival is the work of the plastic artist Koldo Atxaga, with a degree in Fine Arts and a PhD in Audio-visual Communications, who combines university teaching with his-slightly anarchical-work as a designer. He is especially interested in the cultural arena, for which he develops logos, posters, covers and credits. He will obviously never become a millionaire but, in exchange, he enjoys having full creative freedom. His father is said to have been proud of two things: being from Bilbao and being a film projectionist. With these premises, it is not unusual that Atxaga has ended up creating the poster for the 60th anniversary of ZINEBI.
KOLDO ATXAGA ON THE NEW POSTER FOR ZINEBI “It is not easy to take over from a designer like Óscar Mariné after his 17 years designing the posters for ZINEBI and whose work has also been a point of reference for me on many occasions. But the festival is entering into a new phase on its 60th anniversary. It was time to change and it was time to do so radically. For my part, the premises were clear from the outset: red, abstract and conceptual. The solution I have come up with is inspired by the films made by the Basque painter José Antonio Sistiaga, who painted directly on the celluloid, frame by frame. The textures and imperfections in the tiny scale were later amplified on the large screen, revealing organic forms that were cosmic in appearance. This process has been a mystical journey for me to a territory beyond the figurative. What I found there is primary magma, amniotic liquid, the material from which anything is possible”.
POSTER / MIKELDI
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