Nora Aurrekoetxea

Sep 18

Nora Aurrekoetxea is a Basque visual artist living and working in London, UK.

If you are interested in Nora’s work please contact Costanza Nizzi (costanza.nizzi@sia.edu) and Sofia Bellisomo (sofia.bellisomo@sia.edu)

noraaurrekoetxea.com

Instagram: @nora_aurreko

Artist Statement

My practice is based on a sculptural way of understanding and constructing installations where different formal languages (text, performance and objects) share the same space and time. I take relational, material and linguistic aspects as a point of departure to force encounters and/or mismatches in between the experiential and emotional (untouchable) and the physical and the objective (touchable): a space of desire where the attraction-rejection towards the Other occurs formally, linguistically or fiscally. This happens departing from the form, the materiality, following the process and embracing the accident, even if the narrative emerges later or in parallel.

I am intrigued by questions related to the emotional aspects of human interactions and relationships in the intimate sphere, I incorporate references to the figure, or the absence of it, following resonances to architecture, translating gestures and everyday intimate behaviours into forms, familiar structures and their relationship to the wider systems. The objects presented in relationship with the space, need each other - functioning like a co-dependent system. Understanding the installation as a relational system, I am interested in the openness of the meanings within the objects, paying attention to the multiplicity of readings and layers that the same objects may obtain depending on the relationship between its context and the surrounding, where everything affects, alters and interrelates with each other being the instability of the narratives the structure of it, a radical imbalance where the form can reach its own autonomy.

Biography

Graduated in Fine Arts from the University of the Basque Country in 2013, developed her practice in conjunction with the artist Laura Ruiz for 5 years (2013-2017), both working as a tandem. their work was based on a response to a historical moment based on an identity and biographical need related to the Basque political context. They received the Scholarship of the Provincial Council of Bizkaia (2015), we were residents in BIlbaoArte Foundation (2015, BIlbao) and Y Residency (2016, Athens) and we exhibited individually in BilbaoArte (Bilbao, 2016) and in Sala Rekalde (Bilbao , 2017). In this period of time Nora founded and directed, together with two other artists OKELA (2014-2017), an artist run space located in Bilbao, dedicated to contemporary art that proposes a formal and discursive dialogue between artists from different generations of the Basque Country. This project was and still is founded by The Basque Government, the Provincial Council of Bizkaia and the Bilbao City Council. In 2017, she received the Botín Foundation Scholarship with which she moved to London (2017) to course a MA in Sculpture at the Royal Collage of Art (2017-2019). It is in this period of time when she reconnects with her interests in psychology and her Postgraduate studies in Sexology, studied in In.Ci.Sex ( Sexological Scientific Institute, Madrid, 2013-2014), which directs the basis of her current practice to explore new formal languages such as text and performance, combined with sculpture and installation. Between 2018 and 2019 she has been artist in residence at the Cité Internationale des Arts (Paris), Solomon R. Guggenheim (New York), exhibited at the Botín de Santander Center ITINERARIOS XXV and received the Art Production Grant from the Basque Government 2018 and 2019. In 2020 she was awarded with the ARCO prize by the Community of Madrid

Selected Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions: I bought flowers for myself, Juan Silió Gallery, Madrid, Spain (2020); Hard as horse hair, soft as feathers, INTERSTICIO gallery, Curated by Cristina Herraiz, London, UK (2020); A STRONG NEED FOR SECURITY AND A SENSE OF BELONGING, Sala Rekalde, Bilbao, Spain (2017); Katalepsis, BilbaoArte Foundation, Bilbao, Spain (2016); STABILITY, STRUCTURE AND SUPPORT, Y Residency, Athens, Greece (2016); "MALEVICH-EN HERRIA", Sanz Enea, Zarautz, Spain (2015).

Group exhibitions: Estampa, Madrid, Spain (2020); Artissima, Turin, Italy (2020); ARCO Madrid, Galería Juan Silió, Madrid, Spain (2020); Dazzling Encounters, Sanderson, curated by Cristina Herraiz, London, UK (2019); SHOW RCA, Royal College of Art, London, UK (2019); ITINERARIOS XXV, Centro Botín, Santander, Spain (2019); Dirty hands and Revelations, Standpoint Gallery, London, UK (2019); Matter, County Hall Gallery, London, UK (2019); IM SCHWARM DER OBJEKTE, Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, France (2018); OPEN STUDIO, Festival des ´Traversées du Marais´, Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, France (2018); Performance with Anat Ben-Davis, Women´s Art Practice and Thinking, A staged Event, Dorich House Museum, London, UK (2018); WIP show, Royal College of Art, London, UK (2018); ERTIBIL, Itinerant exhibition of Visual Art, Sala Rekalde, Bilbao, Spain (2017); Futuro Presente, Sala Amadís, Injuve, Madrid, Spain (2017); Nomads´land, Fokianou 24/7, Athens, Greece (2016); The urban Game, Pireaus, Athens, Greece (2016); ERTIBIL, Itinerant exhibition of Visual Art, Sala Rekalde, Bilbao, Spain (2016); EL TEOREMA DE MASLOW Nº2.0 #La necesidad satisfecha no genera comportamiento alguno, SICART GALLERY, Barcelona, Spain (2016); OPEN STUDIO, BilbaoArte Fundation, Bilbao, Spain (2015); MASLOW INDUSTRIES, Iruñea, Spain (2015); Temblor-Dardar" Arteztu Gallery, San Sebastian, Spain (2015); Inmersiones, Re(in)sistencia, Congress participant, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain (2014); THE EXHIBITION, Cervantes Institute, Berlin, Germany (2014); Saiaketak, Widnsor Kulturgintza Galllery, Bilbao, Spain (2014); Iritziak, Sanz enea, Zarautz, Spain (2014); POLITICO-POETICO 3º edition, Art and History Museum, Durango, Spain (2014); 24th Audio visual exhibition, Sala BBVA, Bilbao, Spain (2013); Sex, pornography and nude, Body Varu, Opava, Czech Republic (2013); GETXOARTE, Getxo, Spain (2013); 24th Audio visual exhibition, Sala BBVA, Bilbao, Spain (2012); Rytual dla zrdrowia, INFO PUNKT GALLERY, Wroclaw, Poland (2012); Eugeniusz Geppert Museum, Wroclaw, Poland (2012); “P.A.F. feminist artistic practice”, Leitza, Navarra, Spain (2012); POINT8 Gallery, Bayonne, France (2011); IKAS ART, III International exhibition of art college, BEC Barakaldo, Spain (2011); Erreakzioak / Reaction, Multiple edition, Abandoibarra UPV auditorium, Bilbao, Spain (2011)