TO PEE IN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SPACES. WITH CHUS MARTÍNEZ AND ITZIAR OKARIZ

Encounter around Itziar Okariz’s To Pee in Public and Private Spaces (2000-2004) with the artist and Chus Martínez. This event is part of Artworks for De-occupying and Occupying Time in the Museum , a series of encounters accompanying the exhibition After 1968. Art and artistic practices in the Basque Country, 1968-2018 at the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum. The encounters are based on seven works, some of which are included in the exhibition while others are part of its conceptual framework. In each encounter, artists and art specialists gather together around an artwork.

The encounters in Artworks for… coalesce around the idea of how to imagine the museum through the objects it holds – the particular museum hosting After 1968, with its specific nature and history; and the museum in general, as an institution that creates a narrative of the present by storing objects from the past for the future.

Venue: Auditorium, Bilbao Fine Arts Museum.
Time: 7 pm.
Entry free of charge, limited seating. Invitations available at the museum ticket office from Monday, January 21st.

About the artwork
“Series of actions carried out in specific, previously chosen locations. There is no appointed audience although sometimes the action may be witnessed by occasional passers by. I usually try to do it while there is little movement in the streets because of the furtive or illegal aspect of the action. In that sense I find it interesting to delineate what is legally allowed and what is not, as a definition of the individual in society. I have always documented the action either on video or photographically. The premise for the work is to execute the action as described in the title (location included) or, one could say, contained in the title. Thus I don’t think the interest lies solely in the visual result, but in the relationship in between the different expressions. For example, in Peeing with my daughter on Pulaski Bridge the image and statement of the action complement each other. Another important aspect of the actions is to pee standing as a performance of masculinity. So far, I have chosen a number of different locations, the reasons for whose interest varies, always with the aim of expanding the spectrum of meanings.” [Itziar Okariz on Mear en espacios públicos y privados, 2000-2004]

To Pee in Public and Private Spaces is being exhibited in the exhibition After 1968. Art and artistic practices in the Basque Country, 1968-2018 at the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum.

Chus Martínez (A Coruña, 1972) studied Philosophy and Art History. She directs the Art Institute of the FHNW Academy of Arts and Design, Basel, Switzerland. She has worked as chief curator at El Museo del Barrio, New York, and MACBA, Barcelona; director of the Frankfurter Kunstverein, and art director for the Sala Rekalde, Bilbao. Martínez curated Albert Serra’s project for the Catalan National Pavilion at the 56 Venice Biennale (2015) and the National Pavilion of Cyprus at the 51 Biennale (2005). From 2018 to 2020 she will be leading the expedition The Current, a project set up by TBA21 Academy. She also gives talks and speeches, and regularly contributes texts and  critical essays for catalogues and other media including Artforum.

Itziar Okariz is an artist. Her work can be characterised by the production of actions that question the norms of language and sign production that define us as subjects. Solo exhibitions and performances include Respiración y otros sonidos, Centre d’art la Panera, Lleida (2018); I Never Said Umbrella, Donostia-San Sebastián (2018); Una construcción…, CA2M Centro de Arte 2 de Mayo, Madrid (2017); Itziar Okariz, Kunsthaus Baselland, Basel (2017); DS, Ars Parcours, Art Basel, Basel (2017); Oscuros como de noche, Galería CarrerasMúgica, Bilbao (2017); Diario de sueños. Septiembre, Galería etHall, Barcelona (2016); Caja Negra/Cubo Blanco, CA2M Centro de Arte 2 de Mayo, Madrid (2014); Outside of Black Box and White Cube, Keramikvonschaedler, Nendeln, Liechtenstein (2014); Irrintzi Repetition, Sesión 5. Sección Irregular, Mercat de les Flors, Barcelona (2013); Un número de acciones determinadas, MUSAC, Leon (2013); Uno, uno, dos, uno, Galería CarrerasMúgica, Bilbao (2012); Contrarywise, Museo Picasso, Barcelona (2010); Ghost Box, sala rekalde, Bilbao (2008).

Artworks for De-occupying and Occupying Time in the Museum is a collaborative project between Bulegoa z/b and the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum.