Reinterpreting tradition: Fashion and popular roots
Cristóbal Balenciaga Museoa, in collaboration with Kutxa Kultur Moda, presents this session which seeks to explore in more depth the conclusions drawn in the exhibition, the result of research by several specialists involved in the exhibition project.
Date: 18 February.
Timetable: 11:30.
Place: Ruiz Balerdi Room of Kutxa Fundazioa, in Tabakalera, San Sebastian.
Free admission. Limited places. Registration required.
The “Coal and Velvet” exhibition explores the artistic vision and the documentary revision that Cristóbal Balenciaga, in his Haute Couture creations, and Ortiz Echagüe, in his photographic narrations of traditional Spain, make of popular costumes. The work of these two artists creates a dialogue, offering interpretations of a reality —that of popular costumes— which was already becoming extinct in the early 20th century and to which both creators, through works of undeniable artistic quality, give validity and timelessness. Photography and fashion are united in this context to pay tribute to the popular costume, to its universal values, and to the work of two artists who were able to reinterpret tradition and use it as a source of creativity and innovation.
Cristóbal Balenciaga Museoa, in collaboration with Kutxa Kultur Moda, presents this session which seeks to explore in more depth the conclusions drawn in the exhibition, the result of research by several specialists involved in the exhibition project.
PROGRAMME
Presentation of the event: Denis Itxaso González, President of the Cristóbal Balenciaga Foundation.
Presentation I: Javier Ortiz Echagüe. “Technique and art for the Spanish popular portrait” (30 mins).
José Ortiz Echagüe cultivated his work on popular costumes from an artistic, not a merely documentary, point of view. An engineer by profession, he dedicated much of his free time during the early 20th century to photographing popular costumes. Javier Ortiz Echagüe will present the work method of the photographer and collector from Guadalajara, as well as his technique and the developing process he used, direct charcoal on Fresson paper, an essential part of the success of his photographs.
Presentation II: Igor Uria Zubizarreta. “From tradition to the vanguard” (30 mins).
Throughout his career, Cristóbal Balenciaga used a very wide range of diverse sources and references, and one of his ideas was to explore the possibility of traditional clothing as a source of creativity. Igor Uria Zubizarreta, collections director at Cristóbal Balenciaga Museoa and associate curator of the exhibition, will explain the way in which the designer from Getaria documented himself on the reality of the popular costume and de-contextualised it from its space-time coordinates, to turn it into the vanguard of international Haute Couture.
Presentation III: Ana Balda. “Two perspectives on the popular costume” (45 mins).
Cristóbal Balenciaga and José Ortiz Echagüe used popular costumes as a source of inspiration to develop their respective creative careers in fashion and in photography. Ana Balda, the curator of the exhibition, will explain the parallelisms and converging points of the work by both creative artists. The dialogues about each of their perspectives on the popular costume explain how they not only shared a vision of reappraising the regional costume, but also managed to turn it into a timeless concept.
Discussion with resident designers from Kutxa Kultur Moda. “Tradition and crafts in the creative processes of contemporary fashion” (15 mins).
From 3 to 6 November 2016, Cristóbal Balenciaga Museoa held, within the context of the current temporary exhibition and given by lecturer Elisa Palomino, a theoretical-practical course focused on studying the application and adaptation of techniques and aesthetics used in traditional textile creations, on new processes for creating fashion. Three resident designers from Kutxa Kultur Moda took part in the initiative and they will explain in person their experience in this educational activity and the knowledge and tools they acquired.
SPEAKERS
Javier Ortiz Echagüe
BA in History of Art and PhD in Information Sciences by the Complutense University of Madrid, he has given lectures at the Faculty of Fine Arts of Cuenca (University of Castilla la Mancha) and at the Carlos III of Madrid, and has been a visiting researcher at the Université de Provence and at the New York University. He was an assistant curator of Desbordamiento de Val del Omar (Museo Reina Sofía, 2010), and in the context of this project he published the anthology of texts by José Val del Omar, Escritos de técnica, poética y mística (Museo Reina Sofía / La Central, 2010). He is also the curator of Ortiz Echagüe. Norte de África (Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, 2013) and the author of the book Yuri Gagarin y el conde de Orgaz. Mística y estética en la era espacial (Jorge Oteiza, Yves Klein, José Val del Omar, Museo Jorge Oteiza, 2014). He was the co-author, with Horacio Fernández, of Fotos & libros. España 1905-1977 (Museo Reina Sofía / RM, 2014). He is currently a lecturer at the Higher Technical School of Architecture of the University of Navarre and an associate curator of the University of Navarre.
Igor Uria Zubizarreta
Collections Director of the Cristobal Balenciaga Museoa since 2014 and Custodian-Restorer and Registrar since 2004, has participated in the restoration and in the set-up of exhibitions by the CBM, and those by other entities such as the Grimaldi Forum of Monaco with “Les années Grace Kelly”, the Thyssen- Bornemisza Museum with “Hubert de Givenchy” and the Bilbao Museum of Fine Arts with “Balenciaga”, among others. He holds a BA in Fine Arts by the University of the Basque Country and took postgraduate courses at Deusto-ESADE, at the University of Alcalá de Henares, at the Centre International d’études de textiles anciens in Lyon and at the Victoria & Albert Museum, Curating Fashion and Dress. He has collaborated with articles in specialised catalogues and press journals. He compiled the inventory of the Santa María Cathedral Heritage in Vitoria-Gasteiz and has worked as a restorer for other Spanish museums.
Ana Balda
Ana Balda holds a degree in Business and Economic Sciences and a PhD in Communication by the University of Navarre. After extensive experience in the field of business management, she redirected her professional career towards the world of fashion with a doctoral thesis on the communication policy of Casa Balenciaga. Her fields of specialisation are history, photography and the fashion press. Author of many scientific and informative articles, she currently teaches the subjects History of Fashion Design and Representation of Fashion in the Press: Illustration and Photography, within the International Programme of Communication and Fashion at the Faculty of Communication of the University of Navarre. She combines teaching and research with consultancy and the curating of exhibitions.
Those interested must register for the session beforehand by contacting the Museum at info@cristobalbalenciagamuseoa.com or +34 943 00 88 40. Participants in the session that would visit the Museum during that weekend could benefit from a 50% discount on the
