Regional Renaissance: eight years after the opening of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, the art scene in the Basque Country is thriving

Art in America, Nov, 2005 by Kim Bradley

In recent developments that underscore the project's commitment to research and excellence in the arts, the CICC has signed agreements with two stellar institutions, the Basque film center, Filmoteca Vasca, and the San Sebastian-based Ordonez-Falcon foundation. The Filmoteca Vasca--Spain's oldest regional film library--contains the most complete repository of films by and about Basques, in addition to extensive related documentation. Its new home at the CICC will feature enhanced screening facilities and state-of-the-art tools for film preservation. The Ordonez-Falcon foundation, which promotes the collection, exhibition and care of photography and, more recently, video art, will launch an international study center for photography in the CICC. In addition to its educational facilities, it will showcase Enrique Ordonez and Isabel Falcon's exceptional collection of more than 1,500 photos, which range from photography's beginnings to contemporary times (including works by Craigie Horsfield, Sarah Lucas, Sam Taylor-Wood, Zhang Huan and Thomas Ruff, among many others).

As a taste of what's to come, from Apr. 8 to June 15 the CICC presented its first exhibition, "La actualidad revisada" (The Revised Present). The large-scale show featured 19 international video artists selected by Aline Pujo, curator of the Neuflize Vue bank collection. The exhibition was one of the activities organized to complement DFOTO [Apr. 14-17], San Sebastian's second annual photography and video fair, spearheaded by the Ordonez-Falcon foundation.

Basque Master Plan

Since the death of Franco in 1975, the Basque government has made a concerted effort to reinstate its suppressed culture. Yet not until 2000 did it undertake a comprehensive study to set a long-term agenda for the arts. The resulting Basque Master Plan for Culture, commissioned by the Basque government and devised by the Basque Council for Culture (a group of 35 key public and private arts representatives), encompasses historic patrimony, the arts and crafts, and the country's museums, as well as audiovisual, multimedia and digital productions and television. To the Basques' credit, unlike so many governmental decisions in Spain (and elsewhere) that are imposed upon arts professionals without discussion, the making of this plan involved the participation of over 300 arts administrators, in addition to the heads of the central Basque Culture department, plus those of the region's three provinces and their respective capitals. Also of merit was the government's decision to publish various draft proposals conceived by arts experts during the plan's preliminary phase, with the goal of encouraging public debate.

The elaboration of the master plan finally provided the opportunity to officially air long-standing grievances. Among the most provocative ideas presented by the authors of the draft proposal for the visual-arts section was a call for greater equilibrium in public funding between the GMB and research and experimental projects. (16) In their opinion, monies that the culture council now spends on the GMB should be freed up to support the production of new art and to reinforce the professional arts network struggling to sustain cultural initiatives. The authors argued that the GMB is trapped in a self-referential bubble and does little to aid local artists. Perhaps more importantly, it has no interest in cutting-edge art. (17) Although it's unlikely that the council will reduce GMB's funding, it appears that these pleas have not fallen on deaf ears. After all, considerable public monies are slated for San Sebastian's new CICC.