Mikel Lertxundi

Mikel Lertxundi - Without title

Biografía del Artista: Berriatua, Euskal Herria, 1951. His sculptural language is very unique; whether on materials, paper, or other supports, it is a clear and direct language that speaks, but above all, it lets the materials and elements themselves speak, from their being and state. Lertxundi's sculptures, easily recognizable by their suggestive assembly of stone, wood, and iron materials to which he occasionally adds the spatial elements of water, air, and fire, present a discourse that goes beyond mere materials, forms, and spatial conditioning. The essence of his artistic search lies in generating the correct interaction between the participating concepts and elements that he recognizes are part of a broader whole where each material assumes the game of assimilation and, in turn, of difference and individuality. Key concepts such as complementarity and the need for communicative interrelation provide the coordinated guidelines in the same vital space, which seeks harmony and balance. His is a very early choice that has been in the making since childhood. Lertxundi does not know which of the two he discovered first, whether Art or Nature; what is more, he does not know if it was he who chose them or they who chose him. His has always been and is a constant observation and dialogue with Nature, to whom he knows he belongs and in whom he recognizes the teacher and guide of his journey. But Lertxundi also belongs to that generation that in a short space of time has witnessed the greatest changes in values ​​in society; to that which has gone from seeing a humanity that respects and venerates Nature and of which it feels part, to seeing a humanity that believes itself to be unique and supreme and that acts with excessive arrogance and interest. Perhaps for that reason, the author works with the principles consolidated in traveling through different continents and contemplating the landscape of life from the balcony of maturity, he sees that all the path taken leads him to be a bridge: a bridge of connection and reunion of man with Nature. And perhaps that is why the works that “come out” are born as metaphors that induce a return to Nature. “I found my voice when I discovered stone, wood and iron. I refined my tone when I reached simplicity. I have tried to reveal the beauty of nature through the materials closest to it. I have let the materials speak of themselves, of their entity as autonomous bodies and of their contribution to the whole that is nature. I wanted them to express themselves in a direct way and for them to be the ones to transmit. I have penetrated into the most intimate part of their being to observe, analyze, look for textures, behaviors, nuances, contrasts. And they have led me to know our own nature.”