In 2024 we will celebrate 100 years since the birth of Eduardo Chillida and it will also be four decades since he and his wife, Pilar Belzunce, acquired the Zabalaga farmhouse. At that time it was a 16th century mansion in a dilapidated state, located on the outskirts of Hernani and a stone's throw from San Sebastián; a place that fascinated the couple and made them embark on its restoration. They tried to restore its traditional appearance to integrate the sculptor's contemporary art. Eduardo and Pilar had found their leku, his place. So much so that both rest forever on this earth, in the shadow of a magnolia tree.
In Chillida Leku is the legacy of the artist. Perhaps it is his great work, not only because he left dozens of sculptures here, but because he materialized his way of seeing the world. It was a very long, hard and personal project, started when he was already of a certain age. Moment in which any other person would have thought more about retirement than continuing with an intense activity. Even more so, taking into account the trajectory that was behind him.
A lot had passed since I began studying architecture. The days when his hands, instead of creating art, saved balls from the goal of the Real Sociedad de San Sebastián, were also long gone. Likewise, he had long soaked up modernity in Paris to bring it back to his Basque roots. Furthermore, before undertaking the Chillida Leku project she had already exhibited halfway around the world, from New York to Venice. Just as she had experimented with materials as varied as wood, concrete, alabaster and steel with which she had created the emblematic Wind Comb at one end of San Sebastian's Concha Bay.
But he still had many other works to do and Chillida Leku was going to be the creative center from which to conceive new ideas and monuments that would then travel to Gijón, Barcelona, Helsinki or Berlin, among many other destinations. All carried out while the couple was determined to recover the Zabalaga farmhouse and its surroundings so that it would house the artist's most extensive and personal collection. And that is precisely today.
The old farmhouse preserves its traditional architecture, its locked beams, its buttresses to resist the passage of time and a wooden structure that transmits the history and customs of the place. Even the heraldic shield of its original owners adorns one of its facades. But no one lives here anymore, just as the Chillida did not live. It is only inhabited by the art of the temporary exhibitions that are programmed inside. And for such an important moment as the sculptor's centenary, the exhibition Universo Maeght has been chosen, where Braque, Tàpies, Giacometti and Chagall, who once shared gallery owners and experiences with the Basque artist, are mentioned.
In other museums, a space and volumes like those of this mansion would have absolute prominence. Although this is not the case in Chillida Leku. Here it must share a sign with the eleven hectares of land that surround the building. An amplitude divided into two areas. The open field that once served as pasture for cattle and the closed forest with beech, oak and magnolia trees in the highest area. Although both areas have in common the presence of dozens of works by Chillida, always in harmony with nature.
They summarize the characteristics and creative interests of the artist. There are his games between volume and voids, for example in his stone and poetic block The deep is the air. His proposals for time to modify the appearance of his work are appreciated, which is already visible in the monumental Lotura XXXII. Or one also discovers his intention that art levitate, even in concrete works as heavy as Meeting Place IV.
Chillida fused art, thought and poetry. And sometimes she did it from abstract approaches that were distant from the general public. But the result is tremendously human and close sculptures. Chillida Leku is a place where contemporary art does not become an object of admiration or horror. Here you feel, you enjoy, you live the artistic experience. The visitor is enveloped by the shapes of a large sculpture. You may feel tiny or embraced by rusty steel. He can touch the art to feel its textures or he hits it (with love and without going overboard) to bring out the music within. It is possible to take a selfie and there are even those who play hide and seek in the nooks of the figures.
And of course they are also forms that invite reflection. Some works do so especially by placing themselves under the black steel of the Liberty Arch, located between the countryside, the forest and the hamlet. In an ideal point to contemplate the sky, the horizon, the slopes and the nearest environment. The perfect place to understand why this leku captivated Eduardo and Pilar.
