Exhibition 'The tree and its forest of signs', by Aitor de Mendizabal, at the Spanish embassy in Andorra

The exhibition of the Basque artist Aitor de Mendizabal places the leading role in the theme of the tree, on which the artist has been working for years.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
24 June 2022 Friday 15:25
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Exhibition 'The tree and its forest of signs', by Aitor de Mendizabal, at the Spanish embassy in Andorra

The exhibition of the Basque artist Aitor de Mendizabal places the leading role in the theme of the tree, on which the artist has been working for years. De Mendizabal, who lives in the French Basque Country, was trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome and in Carrara. His favorite materials are marble, bronze, steel and slate. His work has obtained important prizes participating in individual and collective exhibitions in Italy, France, Belgium and Spain.

In fact, his work can be seen permanently in the San Telmo Museum in San Sebastian, in the Foral Deputation of Guipúzcoa, in the Basque Government and in the Town Halls of Irún or San Sebastian. Also in the urban public space we find his sculptures in San Sebastian, in Ceret, Boulogne, Belus, Irún, Erandio, Biarritz and Azpetia, among other localities.

In the words of the author and curator of the exhibition, the exhibited works are intended to be a thoughtful and profound tribute to the tree, the forest, the plant world. “We find a strong and intimate bond with nature, while man seems bent on its destruction. For this reason, my trees, reinterpreted or sublimated, denounce certain human activities and the rapacity of our civilization that subjugates the plant world and genetically transforms it to increase its profit, destroying and polluting the water, the air and the land”, he explains.

Throughout his career, De Mendizabal has sought by different means to appropriate the spirit of the living tree and the forest, both in his drawings and paintings as well as in his sculptures, carrying out a transmutation to other industrialized materials “to evoke their power, its perenniality, its fragility, but, above all, its immense dignity”, affirms the artist.