PACK emerged as a direct response to the exhibition invitation and to the physical characteristics of the circular wooden and polycarbonate platform that serves as its support. The title refers to the ideas of layering, interlocking and fitting together, reflecting both the structural relationship between the platform’s two levels and the collaborative working process of the artists themselves. Rather than limiting their intervention to the flat surface of the platform, Mendizabal and Sánchez activate the space three-dimensionally: their sculptural elements rise and fall, occupying the air and inhabiting the intermediate plane of the structure.
Formally, PACK is built around a shared sculptural vocabulary expressed through a playful interplay of forms, colours, connections and compositions. Despite its strong physical presence, the installation conveys a remarkable sense of lightness and chromatic vitality. The work engages playfully with the surroundings of Black Maritxu, combining the openness of the site and the greens of the landscape with a vibrant palette of oranges, yellows and reds that celebrates the experience of sculpture in the open air, beneath both sunshine and rain.
Elena Mendizabal (Donostia–San Sebastián, 1960). To make forms, figures that, in being made and in those who look at them, bring forth what is stored in memory. So many images, aesthetics, artists, places, and eras that serve as a repository of sensitivity, emotions, and knowledge; that intertwine in the present, containing wordless “truths,” relevant and light questions.
When I return to work, after a period or an exhibition, when I face a new project, I restart. There is something of an adventure—both technical and formal/material—that makes it very interesting. Over time, in addition to the references and associations that emerge from artists and aesthetics, there is my own archive, what I have made. All of this arises spontaneously and, even when there is a driving idea, it usually leaves plenty of room for what emerges in the process, for drift and surprise. The work yet to be made is never finished.
The notion of style, understood as recognizable formal characteristics that are maintained, is not for me. Without intending it, freedom in making is freedom. In my work I use different languages, materials, and morphologies, giving rise to the manifestation of a diversity of “selves.”
Urkia Sánchez (Bilbao, 1997) holds a degree in Primary Education from the UPV/EHU (2019). She completed a Master’s in Ceramics: Art and Function (2023) and a Master’s in Research and Creation in Art (2024) at the same university.
She has exhibited in various venues such as Bi Hormetara (2024), the General Assemblies of Bizkaia (2023), Aire Gallery (2025), and ESDIR (2024), among others. She has also taken part in two artistic residencies: Landscape Together (2024) and FotoEnkarterri (2023).
Due to her dual profile as both artist and educator, she has collaborated on different mediation projects at the Chillida Leku Museum (2024), the Museum of Fine Arts (2024), and the ZirriMarra art center (2024). She has participated in several international conferences, including the XIV CSO International Congress (2022), CIVAE 4th Interdisciplinary and Virtual Conference on Arts in Education (2022), and the International Congress on Artistic and Literary Education (2022), where she mainly addressed the link between art and education.
