AKMEKA Research Projects

AKMEKA is an agglomeration that brings together different projects and initiatives that share objectives, lines of research and participating actors to a greater or lesser extent.

AKME is a project that has been active since 2004. Every two years it addresses the reunion and reflection on issues related to artistic practices that, due to their specific characteristics and constant evolution, are difficult to incorporate into the academic curriculum of university studies linked to Art. http://www.ehu.eus/akme/

– Art on the Deusto Bridge has been active since 2012. It consists of artistic intervention projects that rethink the use of abandoned elements of urban architectural heritage through active culture.  http://artepuentededeusto.blogspot.com/

Arteleku Archive was activated in 2017. It is a project that aims to recover the historical memory of the renowned centre of artistic production Arteleku, which was dependent on the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa (1987-2014). Based upon a dispersed physical and digital archive, the aim is to create an open, accessible and living archive in collaboration with different institutions, such as the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa, the Reina Sofía National Museum, and Art Centre (MNCARS). Within the Arteleku archive, research is also being carried out on the Arteleku video collection in collaboration with the film school EQZE (Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola).

TXTLab is a test field for the established relationships between art and text. This space for experimentation with text and art arises from the conference “Writing Art” organized annually since 2016 at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of the Basque Country. txtlab.art.blog

Mekarteak is a research project that started in 2016 and proposes a critical meta-cartographical mapping of the socio-cultural context of the Basque Country through existing maps and the collaboration of new mapmakers. The first edition was published in 2017, and the second is currently underway. mekarteak.wordpress.com

Hau Azkena is a space for transdisciplinary and collective creation that implements animation, among various other techniques, to research questions of a social and poetic character. Through audio-visual projects, it incorporates researchers of different disciplines (music, bertsolaritza, science, anthropology, archaeology, speleology, etc.), and different generations.

Worker’s Audiovisual Essay employs audio-visual formats to compile and contemplate labor terminology that is at risk of disappearance or in disuse, with the purpose of establishing a collective memory exercise of our recent past.

OTHERS: critical texts, artistic and curatorial projects,

Associated Projects:

LAN Audiovisual Workers’ Festival. The LAN festival is a platform that makes visible and highlights audiovisual projects that reflect the feelings of the working class, including their identity traits, their aesthetics, their social and associative network, their architecture, their capacity to fight and adapt, and above all, their historical and collective memory. It is a non-competitive festival that bases its programme on the diversity of the works it exhibits, both in form and subject matter. For this reason it does not award prizes to the films presented. http://www.lanfestival.org/

This post is also available in: Spanish Basque