A moment of the presentation of the book, at the Museum of Fine Arts. /
Created by the members of the Laida research group, the book explores ways of traveling from literary, artistic and plastic approaches
Traveling means “going from one place to another, but also moving from one state to another. Personal development, our education and our own lives are journeys”, reads ‘Between trip and trip’, the text that serves as the starting station for ‘Bidaia – Viaje – Viagem – Travel – Voyage’. It is a book of collective authorship that, as its multilingual title reflects, addresses the concept of travel from very varied perspectives, and all from creation. Published by the editorial service of the UPV/EHU, the book, which was presented this Friday at the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum, is a tribute to the painter Jesus Mari Lazkano (Bergara, 1960), a former professor at the same university and member of the literary and artistic research group Laida.
«The heart of this publication is Jesus Mari Lazkano who, masterfully, in his works of art offers us again and again the possibility of visiting, both visually and metaphorically, new territories with him. We must thank him for the opportunity we have had to be co-workers and research partners on this central journey that is life”, explained Jon Kortazar, Professor of Basque Literature at the UPV/EHU and principal investigator at Laida.
As Kortazar recalled, the group has “a particular custom.” Normally, when one of its components retires, a compilation of requested articles from various authors is published in tribute. But this time, in the case of Lazkano, it has been different. «The editors of this work, Iratxe Larrea, Susana Jodrá and Josean Morlesin, had the idea of paying a different homage: inviting the people who make up this group, who normally do academic research, to create» around the idea of trip.
Thus arose «a book that is not academic, it is creative. Each of the people who intervenes does so from her point of view. There are several approaches to the concept of travel, some literary –prose, poetry, essay– and others artistic –painting, engraving, sculpture, photography, illustration–». The work compiles original content along with other works already published. This book “is a way, at the level of our forces, to thank all the generosity that Jesus Mari has shown us,” Kortazar concluded.
The journey as transformation
‘Bidaia – Viaje – Viagem – Travel – Voyage’ compiles various trips, ways of traveling or reflections on travel through the work of some participants in the Laida research group, with Lazkano (Bergara, 1960) being the author of one of his chapters, an illustrated text with samples from his ‘Cuaderno del ártico’, on maps as a reference for the trip, but also as a basis for his “mental cartography, territory of painting and drawing, a new and exciting space for the imagination, for new ideas.
The painter, who has been grateful and moved by the homage to which he is the object, has reflected on the idea of the trip, «which is even mythologized. You don’t have to travel so much. We can do it from home, with our thoughts, with our imagination, with books… It is not necessary to move physically from the place. It takes a mental attitude.” That gives us “the ability to open our minds and renew ourselves.” In fact, “the trip means that, transformation.” The important thing is not the trip, “it is the change. How we are, what we have learned, what new questions we incorporate into our way of being in the world».
In addition to Lazkano and Kortazar, the presentation was attended by Miguel Zugaza, director of the Museum of Fine Arts; Gorka Moreno, vice-rector of the Bizkaia campus of the UPV/EHU; Susana Jodra, professor and researcher at the UPV/EHU; and Josean Mellado, professor and researcher at the UPV/EHU.