The Basque Country, a territory where the external image was until recently absolutely conditioned by the stigma of violence, wants to project itself to the world through culture. “We must convince ourselves that culture is what makes us visible in the world”, wrote the poet and novelist Kirmen Uribe. Certainly, the Guggenheim, the Sant Sebastià International Film Festival or the screening of creators with a universal vocation have become some of the elements with which Euskadi is today associated abroad. The Basque cultural fabric, however, is much more complex and is being renewed in a surprising way.
The cinema
End of the exodus
According to the director of the Basque Film Library, Joxean Fernández, Basque cinema is experiencing a sweet moment once some of the dynamics that conditioned its evolution have been broken.
“First of all, the exodus to Madrid in the eighties and nineties has come to a standstill. Our filmmakers tend to stay in the Basque Country, even if they shoot here and there, and this brings about a substantial change. Secondly, the relationship with Basque has changed. Today, Basque is clearly a film language, thanks mainly to sociological changes. The generation of Erice, Olea, Ana Díez or Armendáriz did not speak Basque. The second generation, that of Alex de la Iglesia, Medem, Urbizu, Calparsoro, Helena Taberna or Bajo Ulloa didn’t talk about it either. However, Basque is the language of many of today’s filmmakers, Moriarti (Goenaga, Arregui and Garaño), Asier Altuna, Estibaliz Urresola, Lara Izagirre, Telmo Esnal and many others”, he explains.
Joxean Fernández also points out that Basque cinema “has expanded both in genres and in the places it goes”. “We see that Isabel Herguera has reached the official section of San Sebastià with an animated film by the author and on the platforms we have Alex de la Iglesia with 30 coins or the Moriarti with Balenciaga”, he indicates.
The director of the Basque Film Library mentions among the milestones of Basque cinema in recent years “the premiere of Handia, a turning point for Basque cinema with these ten Goya awards, or the recognitions of 20,000 species of bees and Or horn last year”. “Seeing Estibaliz Urresola winning in Berlin and Jaione Camborda taking home the Concha d’Or was very important. The incorporation of women is another characteristic of this boom, although much remains to be done, especially in fiction. More steps must also be taken to promote Basque-language cinema. In any case, we have seen that Basque cinema is good not only because we say so, but also because they tell us so outside”, he says.
According to the director of the Basque Film Library, this growth of Basque cinema has come about thanks to “talent and courage in creation and production, and also thanks to a series of very well coordinated institutional policies”. In any case, Fernández warns that this is a very competitive sector “in which there will be no shortage of challenges”.
Performing arts
More talent than is absorbed
Regarding the performing arts, Ana López, the director of the Barakaldo theater and member of the board of directors of the Euskadi Sarea Network of Theaters, particularly highlights the emergence of emerging values, both in theater and dance: “More beyond the mantra that the theater is always in crisis, we see an irruption on the scene of young values ??and with a greater presence of women in the creative field. María Goiricelaya is a good example of this trend. And the same thing happens in dance, thanks to very interesting artists such as Olaia Valle”.
Ana López, however, appreciates a problem when it comes to bringing all this talent to the stage: “There is a gap between the volume of new talent we see and the capacity of the stage spaces to absorb it. This gap is much more evident in the case of dance. Sometimes you want to fill the theaters with familiar faces from outside, when here we have proposals of the same level or even higher. In any case, we observe with satisfaction the arrival of new values ??that will make people talk and we emphasize the contribution of Dantzerti, the superior school of dramatic art and dance”.
Literature
Generational coexistence
Karmele Jaio, one of the most recognized writers on the Basque literary scene, detects four dynamics that place Basque literature at an “important moment in the field of creation”. The first is of a generational nature and particularly affects literature in Basque: “Several generations live together, relate and write at the same time, something that is enriching”, he explains. In other words, the generation of Anjel Lertxundi, Bernardo Atxaga or Arantxa Urretabizkaiano has passed the test, but shares its place of privilege in the literary scene with other generations of writers.
Secondly, Jaio highlights the “presence of more women writers”, a trend that is very eloquent considering the latest editions of the Euskadi Literature Awards, the most important in the Basque literary scene, which in 2022 awarded seven women writers in their seven categories Authors such as Eider Rodriguez, Edurne Portela, Uxue Apaolaza, Txani Rodríguez, Aixa de la Cruz, Uxue Alberdi, Irati Jiménez or Karmele Jaio herself have become great references in Basque literature, both in Basque and in Spanish.
Jaio mentions a third characteristic linked to the growth in the presence of female writers. “This trend has made it possible to change topics and especially views, and this has brought more diversity.” Finally, according to the opinion of the writer from Vitoria, Basque literature has gained more prominence. “For a few years it seemed that Basque literature, especially literature in Basque, remained in Atxaga or Kirmen Uribe, just as it happened with Galician literature, which was associated solely with Rivas. Now you can see that there is much more interest from publishers, who publish and translate more for us”, he explains. Karmele Jaio herself has been translated into a dozen languages, she publishes outside the Basque Country with Destino and in a few days she will visit Sant Jordi.
In Bertsolarism, as in written literature, we can also appreciate the generational relief, a diversification of topics and a growing weight of women, trends to which we should add a more urban component and the success of the public at the big dates, shows that thousands of people gather.
Music
The end of the hegemony of rock
In the musical field, focusing primarily on popular music, the Basque music scene is experiencing an incipient transformation that is particularly noticeable since the pandemic. The hegemony of rock, punk and metal, which had a lot to do with what happened in the Basque scene in the eighties and nineties, has given way to a diversification of genres favored by a generational shift.
The tip of the iceberg of the Basque music scene is made up of bands capable of filling halls such as Zetak, Izaro, Bulego or ETS, which next year will fill the Bilbao Exhibition Center for three days. However, in recent years there has been an outbreak of groups that move in a more underground sphere and that are forming an interesting and eclectic scene, from the ferocious pop-rock of Merina Gris to the urban styles of Hofe or Bengo , among other proposals.
“Basque music, and music in Basque, is fully present in the world square, in tune with everything that happens. It has been renovated and there is a very interesting panorama, with very sincere and authentic musical proposals”, explains Maialen Goirizelaia, professor of Audiovisual Communication at the University of the Basque Country (UPB/EHU).
As for classical music, the director of the Donostia Musical Fortnight, Patrick Alfaya, considers that Euskadi is in a “moment of expectant stability”, with its eyes on the “increasingly necessary renewal of the audience”. In his opinion, the Basque Country must take advantage of strengths such as an “investment in training that must be translated into the development of particular artistic initiatives” or the impetus for an “attractive and quality choral movement”. In the field of classical music, the two Basque symphony orchestras also deserve particular attention: the Euskadiko Orkestra and the BOS (Bilbao Orkestra Sinfonikoa).
Art
Del Guggenheim is Azala
In the plastic and visual arts, it is necessary to take into account, on the one hand, the constellation of museums formed by the Guggenheim, the Museum of Fine Arts of Bilbao, the Artium (Vitoria), the Chillida Leku or the Tabakalera, although that Beatriz Hérraez, director of the Artium Museoa, emphasizes that we must not forget “other fundamental spaces of different scale or independent galleries and projects such as Dinamoa, Azala, Kinu/Atoi, Zas, Okela or Bulegoa z/ b”.
In addition, Hérraez highlights the proposals of artists to whom Artium has dedicated exhibitions in recent years, such as “Esther Ferrer, Ibon Aranberri, Itziar Okariz, Juan Luis Moraza, Txaro Arrazola, Gema Intxausti, June Crespo, Xabier Salaberria, Erlea Maneros Zabala, Sahatsa Jauregi, Nerea Lekuona or Josu Bilbao”. “I mention many names, although I would also stop at the generation of authors who work with cinema and the moving image: Laida Lertxundi, Ainara Elgoibar, Maddi Barber, Irati Gorostidi, Marina Lameiro and Mirari Echávarri, among others ‘others’. For this reason, Hérraez considers that Basque art is experiencing “an excellent moment”.
It is a diagnosis that, even at the risk of falling into complacency, could be extended to most sectors and that invites us to update the references associated with the culture created in the Basque Country, where new generations have assumed the relay
