Itziar Okariz, Beatriz Olabarrieta and Kampai Espazioa will host the Gure Artea Awards

Itziar Okariz(Award for Artistic Career), Beatriz Olabarrieta(Award for Creative Work) and Kampai Espazioa(Award for Recognition of the Work of Agents in the Field of Plastic and Visual Arts) will receive this year the Gure Artea Awards, the most important of which are awarded by the Basque Government in the field of visual arts.

The jury, composed of Commissioner and Investigator Catalina Lozano Moreno (President), Ane Abalde Amezaga, Jon Mikel Euba Arrue, Josu Bilbao Ugalde and Miriam Alzuri Milanes, will receive 20,000 euros.

The jury has stressed that Itziar Okariz (Donostia, 1965) has been working through performances, actions, videos, installations and pieces of text for more than thirty-five years on artistic research focused on the relationships between architecture, territory, body, ritual, sexuality and language.

In the jury's view, Okariz belongs to a generation of artists who incorporated the performative element as a key tool for creating meaning, which became an international reference in the field of contemporary performance.

The award for the recognition of creative work will be awarded to Beatriz Olabarrieta (Bilbao, 1979), by decision of the jury. She develops artistic practice as a field of experimentation; her work is characterized by an intuitive and relational approach.

With small gestures and subtle transformations, objects cease to be material elements in their hands and become mechanisms capable of activating relationships, modifying perceptions and creating new forms of experience.

The jury has awarded the Kampai Espazioa, a self-managed space in Bilbao, the award for the recognition of the work of agents in the field of plastic and visual arts.

Since its inception, the Kampai Space has been promoting a meeting, production and exhibition space for artists, collectives and cultural actors of different generations.

According to the jury, the Kampai Space has demonstrated a great ability to create context, to promote collaboration between agents and to strengthen the artistic fabric of the Basque youth, a constant work that has made space a reference in the contemporary artistic ecosystem of the Basque Country.