Nora Aurrekoetxea

Information

1989 Bilbao/Netherlands

She graduated in Fine Arts from the University of the Basque Country in 2013 and 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 biographical need to respond to a historical moment related to the Basque political context and its social imaginary. In parallel she studied a postgraduate course in Sexology at In.ci.sex. (Madrid 2011-2013).

In this period of time she 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 funded 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 study a Master in Sculpture at the Royal Collage of Art (2017- 2019). It is in this period of time when She reconnected with her interests in Sexology which directs the basis of her current practice to explore text and performance combined with sculpture and installation.

She has been artist in residence at BilbaoArte (Bilbao, 2015), Y residence (Athens, 2016), Cité Internationale des Arts (Paris, 2018), Solomon R. Guggenheim (New York, 2018), DerdeWal (Nijmegen, 2021) and Paradise Air (Tokyo, 2022). She has received the Bizkaia Provincial Council Scholarship (2015), the Basque Government Artistic Production Scholarship (2018, 2019 and 2021), the Botín Foundation Scholarship (2017), the ARCO Madrid fair award (2020), the second award ERTIBIL (2021), Etxepare Institute funds (2021), Groeispurtfonds (2021), Generaciones (2021) and GURE ARTEA prize (2022).

Solo shows include Intersticio (London, 2020) and Juan Silió gallery (Madrid 2020). She has participated in collective exhibitions at Centro Botín (Santander 2019 and 2020), Ca2m (Madrid 2020), Intersticio (Madrid 2020 and 2021), Rodriguez Gallery (Poznan 2021), SUPER preview (London 2021), HAUS WIEN (Vienna 2021), Staffordshire Studios (London 2021), DerdeWal (Nijmegen 2021), Mutter (Amsterdam 2021), Omstand (Arnhem, 2022), Tabakalera (Donostia 2022), La Casa Encendida (Madrid 2022), Nono Gallery (Lisbon 2022) ,the Guggenheim Museum (Bilbao 2022) and Oteiza Foundation (2022).

Her work is part of the permanent collection of the DKV Foundation, the CA2M

ArtWork

my studio based practice departs from a sculptural way of building  installations where text, performance, video and objects share the same space and time. 

I understand the installation as a relational space,
a system where unpredicted dialogues happen in interdependency
between

objects
space
and audience
creating layers of meaning
where everything alters and interrelates with each other

                               being the instability of narratives

                                                      the structure of it.

 

I am particularly intrigued by questions related to emotional aspects of human interactions in the intimate sphere,
love and desire. 

I use experiences in an auto-ethnographical way as a raw material to explore the personal and the collective with wider cultural, political and social meanings.

leading workshops and text based exercises allow me to reach a horizontal and collaborative way of  sharing, questioning  and experimenting with language within a particular group as a methodology.

I depart unexpectedly from
a life event
a love letter
a fetish
an intuition
a desire

I develop the work through its materiality and form,
                       trying to reach its own autonomy,

following the process and embracing the accident,
even if the narrative emerges later or in parallel. 

 

I often choose objects related to the body, or with the absence of it,
looking for tension and balance between hard, quotidian building materials and delicate, intimate ones 

concrete and velvet fabric
dried flowers on rusty metal

relational, material and linguistic aspects force encounters and / or mismatches between the experiential and emotional  and the physical and the objectual

an inner tension emerges in this process

        a thing that is still being born and is only recognisable

by an active listening of the making.

CV

1989, Bilbao, Spain

Lives and works between Bilbao and the Netherlands

 

Education

2021 Advanced Sexology Course. Instituto de Sexología, in.ci.sex, Madrid

2019 Master of Arts in Sculpture. Royal College of Art, London

2013 Postgraduate Course in Sexology. In.ci.sex, Madrid / Bachelor of Fine Arts. Universidad del País Vasco, Bilbao

 

Grants & Awards

2023 Art Situacions III Award. Honda-Green Powers

2022 Gure Arte Award. Basque Government / Miquel Casablancas Award for the Visual Arts. Sant Andreu Contemporani / Contemporary Art Grant. Etxepare Euskal Institutua

2021 Creation Grant for the Visual Arts. Basque Government / Generación 2021 Award. La Casa Encendida / Groeispurt Fonds. Cultuur Academy

2020 ARCO Art Fair Award / Ertibil Bizkaia Award, Second Prize. Regional Government of Vizcaya

2019 Creation Grant for the Visual Arts. Basque Government

2018 Creation Grant for the Visual Arts. Basque Government / Distinction for dissertation, MA Sculpture. Royal College of Art

2017 Visual Arts Grant. Fundación Botín / Ertibil Bizkaia Grant. Regional Government of Vizcaya

2016 Solo Exhibition Grant. BilbaoArte Fundazioa / Ertibil Bizkaia Grant. Regional Government of Vizcaya

2015 Visual Arts Grant for Artistic Production. Regional Government of Vizcaya / Daniel Txopitea Award for Artistic Production

 

Residencies

2022 Paradise Air, Matsudo

2021 Derde Wal Residency, Nijmegen

2018 Solomon R.Guggenheim Museum, New York / Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris

2016 Y Residency, Athens

2015 BilbaoArte Fundazioa, Bilbao

 

Solo Shows

2020 I bought Flowers for Myself. Juan Silió Gallery, Madrid / Hard as Horse Hair, Soft as Feathers. Intersticio Gallery, London

2017 A Strong Need for Security and a Sense of Belonging. Sala Rekalde, Bilbao

2016 Katalepsis. BilbaoArte Fundazioa, Bilbao / Stability, Structure and Support. Y Residency, Athens

2015 Malevich-En Herria. Sanz Enea, Zarautz

 

Group Shows

2023 Art Situacions III. ARCO Madrid 2023, Madrid

2022 Interestratos. Fundación Museo Jorge Oteiza, Alzuza / KOKONI Ertibil

AKIHABARA. 3331 Arts Chiyoda, Tokyo / Programa de artistas vascos, 2015-19. Museo Guggenheim Bilbao, Bilbao / Matéria Afecto. No-No Gallery, Lisbon / Aguas vivas. Impulsos eléctricos. Juan Silió Gallery, Madrid / Generación 2022. La Casa Encendida, Madrid / Universo Emma Kunz. Tabakalera, Donostia-San Sebastián / Lo Otro Maravilloso. Intersticio Gallery, Madrid / State of Cling. Omstand, Arnhem / ARCO Lisboa 2022. Juan Silió Gallery, Lisbon / Art Rotterdam 2022. Singular-Art, Rotterdam / ARCO Madrid 2022. Juan Silió Gallery, Madrid

2021 Blood/Sea. Mutter, Amsterdam / La puntada subversiva. CA2M-Centre Grau-Garriga d’Art Textil Contemporani / Ecdysis. Staffordshire Studios, London / How Blue the Sky Was. Nora Aurrekoetxea & Lucía Bayón. Haus Wien, Vienna / ERTIBIL, Itinerant exhibition of Visual Arts. Sala Rekalde, Bilbao / Latent Longing. Super Preview, London / Claro del bosque. Instersticio Gallery, Madrid / We Are Always in Danger of Magic. Rodriguez Gallery, Poznan / Estampa Fair 2021. Juan Silió Gallery, Madrid / ARCO Madrid 2021. Juan Silió Gallery, Madrid

2020 Architecture into Art. A Dialogue. Centro Botín, Santander / Colección XVIII: Textil. Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo, Madrid / Palpable Surfaces. Trixie, The Hague / ERTIBIL. Itinerant Exhibition of Visual Arts. Sala Rekalde, Bilbao / ARCO Madrid 2022. Juan Silió Gallery, Madrid

2019 Dazzling Encounters. Sanderson, London / Show RCA. Royal College of Art, London / Itinerarios XXV. Centro Botín, Santander / Dirty Hands and Revelations. Standpoint Gallery, London / Matter. County Hall Gallery, London

2018 Im Schwarm Der Objekte. Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris / Festival des Traversées du Marais. Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris / Women’s Art Practice and Thinking. Dorich House Museum, London / WIP Show. Royal College of Art, London

2017 ERTIBIL. Itinerant exhibition of Visual Arts. Sala Rekalde, Bilbao / Futuro Presente. Injuve. Sala Amadís, Madrid

2016 Nomads Land. Fokianou 24/7, Athens / The Urban Game. Pireaus, Athens / ERTIBIL. Itinerant exhibition of Visual Arts. Sala Rekalde, Bilbao / El teorema de Maslow n.º 2.0. Sicart Gallery, Barcelona

2015 Open Studio. BilbaoArte Fundazioa, Bilbao / Getxoarte 2015. Algorta Market, Getxo

2014 The Exhibition ‘014. Instituto Cervantes, Berlin / Saiaketak. Windsor Kulturgintza Gallery, Bilbao / Iritziak. Sanz Enea, Zarautz / Político-Poético-III. Art and History Museum, Durango / Getxoarte

  1. Algorta Market, Getxo

2013 24th Audio-Visual Exhibition. Sala BBVA, Bilbao / Sex, Pornography and Nude. Body Varu, Opava / Getxoarte 2013. Algorta Market, Getxo

2012 Rytual dla zrdrowia. Info Punkt Gallery, Wroclaw / Museum of the Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Arts and Design, Wroclaw

2011 Ikas-Art. III International Exhibition of Art. Bilbao Exhibition Center, Barakaldo / POINT8 Gallery, Bayonne

2010 Erreakzioak / Reaction. Abandoibarra. Universidad del País Vasco, Bilbao

 

Works in Collections

Colección DKV. Grupo de salud y seguros médicos, Zaragoza

Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo, Madrid

Centro Botín, Santander

Fundación Montemadrid, Madrid

BilbaoArte Fundazioa, Bilbao

 

Lectures & Workshops

2021 Visiting lecture. Universidad del País Vasco, Leioa

2020 Visiting lecture. Staffordshire University, Staffordshire / EREMUAK jardunaldiak. Tabakalera, Donostia-San Sebastián

2018 Artist talk & lead tutorials. Lancaster Institute for Contemporary Arts, Lancaster / Artist talk & lead tutorials. Farnham University for the Creative Arts, Farnham

2014 “Re(in)sistencia”. Inmersiones. VII Congreso de Artistas Emergentes del País Vasco y Navarra. Artium Museoa, Vitoria-Gasteiz

 

Publications (Selection)

2022 Metal, vol. 1. Berlin, Material Review

2020 Hard as Horse Hair, Soft as Feathers. London, Intersticio Gallery / I Bought Flowers for Myself. London, self-published

2019 Moonlight is Sculpture is Moonlight. London, Royal College of Art / Itinerarios XXV. Santander, Fundación Botín

2016 Katalepsis. Bilbao, BilbaoArte Fundazioa


Artwork in Exhibition