Esther Ferrer will receive the Eusko Ikaskuntza-Labor Kutxa Prize for Humanities, Culture, Arts and Social Sciences

Basque artist Esther Ferrer will receive the 2026 Eusko Ikaskuntza-Labor Kutxa Humanities, Culture, Arts and Social Sciences Award "for her artistic career and her contribution to education in the Basque Country," the jury said.

The jury of the award has been composed of representatives of the seven universities in the geographical area of Eusko Ikaskuntza and Musikene.

Esther Ferrer is one of the most significant Basque creators of all time. "Since the early 1960s, she has developed a broad multidisciplinary trajectory, with a deep critical character that transcends the boundaries of language and time and places the body at the centre of her creative work," says Eusko Ikaskuntza.

Especially known in the field of performance art, Ferrer has helped to reinterpret the boundaries of contemporary art by establishing an internationally influential language of his own.

His work has been or is exhibited at the Reina Sofia in Madrid, at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, at the Val-de-Marne Museum of Contemporary Art in Paris, at the National Museum of Fine Arts in Rio de Janeiro, at the Museu d'Art Contemporani in Barcelona, at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, at Artium...

Along with his artistic career, the jury has highlighted "his contribution to the education of the Basque Country. He participated in the pioneering Free Expression Workshop, founded in San Sebastián in 1963, together with the painter José Antonio Sistiaga, at the Experimental School of Elorrio, and has subsequently developed extensive teaching work at the universities and schools of Fine Arts of Canada, France, Italy, Mexico, Switzerland and Spain."

Ferrer is "an artist committed to the current evolution of society," as reflected in the jury's ruling, "who understands art as a space of freedom."

Youth Award

As reported last month, the winner of the Eusko Ikaskuntza-Labor Kutxa Youth Award has been Maddi Alberdi San Martín, with a study on feminism and Basque nationalism entitled "From captivity to liberation: Latin American feminism and the experiences of Basque nationalist women in dialogue". 

Alberdi and Ferrer will receive these awards in July.