The International Festival of Documentary and Short Film of Bilbao – ZINEBI, organised by Bilbao Town Hall, is participating in the tribute to Iñigo Salaberria, who is to be awarded the Mikeldi of Honour Award at the 64th Festival. The work of the Errenteria videoartist and director will be the main feature of the tribute to be held Thursday 27 October, at 19:00 h, in the auditorium of the Fine Arts Museum, as “Tribute to Iñigo Salaberria. Walk to see (the light), wait to see (the shadow)”, at the behest of Videoflux (University of the Basque Country’s AKMEKA Research Group), curated by professor Gabriel Villota.

The family of Iñigo Salaberria, who passed away recently, will be picking up ZINEBI’s Mikeldi of Honour Award at the Festival inauguration ceremony in the Arriaga Theatre on 11 November.

WALK TO SEE (THE LIGHT), WAIT TO SEE (THE SHADOW)

The event at the Fine Arts Museum will be attended by, in addition to the director of the Museum, Miguel Zugaza, the director of ZINEBI, Vanesa Fernández Guerra, writer, professor and curator Fito Rodríguez, professor Pablo Maravi, former director of Arteleku Santi Eraso and director Maria Elorza, with whom Salaberria worked on the editing of his last short film.

Friends and family of the Gipuzkoa director will also attend a session at which, in addition to a debate moderated by Gabriel Villota on Salaberria’s work, there will be a screening of four short films directed by the videoartist during a trajectory of over thirty years:

  • Birta Mirkur (Iñigo Salaberria & Olafur Petursson, 1987) (10 min)
  • Disdirak (Iñigo Salaberria, 1992) (10 min)
  • Luz a la deriva (Iñigo Salaberria, 2015) (18 min)
  • Lo ibiltariak (Iñigo Salaberria, 2017) (15 min)

After studying Cinematographic Aesthetics and History at the universities of Valladolid and Paris III, Salaberria’s first contact with videoart was on video courses at the American Center in Paris, where he worked as technical assistant at the workshops of artists as highly acclaimed and influential as Michel Jaffrennou, Joan Logue and Ken Feingold.

A member of Spain’s second videoart generation, Salaberria produced some extremely coherent work, constantly featuring an interest in rolling out a personal, detailed, reflexive gaze, always homing in on perceptive changes, which clearly fell in with the tradition of experimental audiovisual focusing more on the phenomenological aspects of image. The contemplative nature of his work caught the attention of those in charge of programming at festivals such as the San Sebastián Video Festival (in the eighties), ZINEBI (where his last work was premiered – Rijeka (2019), and where he had competed in the event’s Official Section in 2015 and 2017) and Punto de Vista (Pamplona), but it was also screened on television in Spanish TV’s Metrópolis slot.

COLLABORATION WITH THE UNIVERSITY OF THE BASQUE COUNTRY

In addition to this tribute to Iñigo Salaberria, organised along with Videoflux (AKMEKA Research Group), this year ZINEBI is collaborating with the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) through EHUKultura by reactivating the ZINEBI EXPRESS short film competition, the 13th round of which will be held from 4 to 10 November.

On 16 November, during the Festival at the UPV/EHU’s Bizkaia Aretoa, ZINEBI will also be holding a public presentation of the pitching of short films by contestants in this year’s Aukera programme, launched and organised by the association targeting women in the audiovisual sector and scenic arts, (H)emen, in association with Zineuskadi, Kutxa Kultur, the Bizkaia Provincial Council, the Gipuzkoa Provincial Council, the Araba Provincial Council and ZINEBI.