This exhibition proposes a reading of Eduardo Chillida’s work through a contemporary artistic practice perspective.
“There is a certain way of knowing prior to what we call knowledge, through which it is possible to know a thing without understanding it. This way of knowing is so open that it allows for diverse forms, without yet understanding them.
This pre-knowledge or aroma is my guide to the unknown, in what is desired or necessary. I never argue with it a priori, and never cease to do so a posteriori.”
Eduardo Chillida
This exhibition proposes a reading of Eduardo Chillida’s work through a contemporary artistic practice perspective to produce a context for reflecting on intuition as a research element, connection with the place and other forms of more sensitive and sensory understanding as work methodologies. It is a project in which Chillida’s work and writings become a point of departure for a conversation that opens up more expansive reflections on how to “produce a world”.
The title of this exhibition has a double meaning: on one hand, it refers to the series Lugar de encuentros (Meeting Places), created between 1964 and 1974, with large, suspended concrete constructions resulting from Chillida’s reflection on the circulation of water stemming from the architecture of old washing places. At the same time, it refers to the moment in which intuition becomes certainty, which Chillida himself defined as “meetings” with ideas.
The works that are part of Topalekuak do not operate as illustrations of a legacy, but rather raise questions, create spaces, and listen attentively to the universe, imagining other possible responses in connection with the world that surrounds them.