Open conversation. Bulegoa z/b & Amaia Urra. Hemen nago: lejos, urrun

Curating as listening. A literal response to an invitation from the research group Conversación abierta. An encounter with Amaia Urra, where we will hear the artist’s voice and a selection of works of hers from the last ten years. In Hemen nago: lejos, urrun (I’m Here: Lejos, Far Away) we will try to journey through a practice that works by displacing the body and language and words as they are sung, spoken or read, presented through live actions, sound recordings and graphic displays. This encounter is a collective listening exercise which will travel through several works in the course of two intensive sessions. We hope to create a dense, accumulative situation through which to study a practice whose deliberate stance is light and elusive. Although the artist will not be physically present at both sessions, her voice will accompany us.

Amaia Urra (Donostia-San Sebastian, 1974) is an artist. In 1998 she graduated from the Universidad del País Vasco, specialising in sculpture. Her first performance, El Eclipse de A., was produced by Arteleku as part of the Mugatxoan programme in 2002. From 1999-2009 she moved between Paris, Brussels, Madrid and Berlin, working with different choreographers: Jérôme Bel, Cristina Blanco, Blanca Calvo, Juan Domínguez, María and Cuqui Jerez, Xavier le Roy, and Ion Munduate. Her works have been presented at spaces, encounters and festivals including Art nomade; Saguenay international performance encounter (Quebec); Axeneo7 & SAW Gallery, Gatineau (Ottawa); Líneas de acción, Casa Maauad (Mexico DF); In-presentable festival, La Casa Encendida (Madrid); 2D2H festival (Hondarribia-Hendaia); Bulegoa z/b (Bilbao); Ecolalias, a series by RSS Radio, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Madrid); Zarata Fest (Bilbao); Azkuna Zentroa contemporary art centre (Bilbao); Picnic Sessions, 15^th edition, Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo (Móstoles); and Sala Héctor Escandón (Mexico DF). She currently lives and works in Donostia-San Sebastian, where she ran the Alkolea Beach space with Sandra Cuesta and Larraitz Torres from March 2017 to February 2018.