Awards

The Mikeldi trophy is a re-reading by the Basque plastic artist Maite Leyún of one of Biscay’s most recognizable images: the Mikeldi idol, a sandstone figure representing a boar and the symbol that has defined the International Festival of Documentary and Short Film since it began in 1959. At that time, the festival founders explained their reasons for the choice of trophy: in order position it on the front line of international cinematographic awards in the documentary film sector, and the justification they gave for the name and image was that “the sandstone figure, in the shape of a boar, found in Durango (Bizcay) is understood to be an indigenous symbol of Biscay […]. It is a Celtic votive offering similar to the bulls and boars found on the Peninsula but with a solar or lunar disc that is exclusive to Biscay.”

At ZINEBI 60, in 2018, Maite Leyún was in charge of reinterpreting this symbol and linking Zinebi’s contemporary identity to the ancient sculpture. “I aimed to create a new form that was not reminiscent of anything we had already seen but that reminded us of the Mikeldi. Revisiting former characteristics, I decided to recover the idea of inscriptions and put them inside the disc, the central element of union between the original and this new piece. Inscriptions that will be used to acknowledge the work of new authors at this film festival. So, we have a ceramic object that, based on an ancient sculpture, intends to be a new form used to acknowledge the work of people who do care about how things are done while also making sure that they are saying something.” (Maite Leyún)

Leyún has a Master’s Degree and a PhD in Fine Arts from the University of the Basque Country. Her work centres on ceramics and is of a multidisciplinary nature that connects with contemporary reality and aims to extend beyond the boundaries between sculpture and the different arts. It has been displayed at different exhibitions around the world and she has received a range of scholarships and awards for it, including the Maximo Ramos Award in Ferrol, a residence at the International Ceramics Studio (ICS Hungary) and the BilbaoArte Foundation Scholarship in Bilbao. In addition to her art, she also works on projects relating to the fields of design, teaching and research.