Zaldi

Patxi Xabier Lezama Perier, considered one of the leading figures of Basque sculpture in the second half of the 20th century, created Zaldi in 1989.

Born in 1967, Lezama Perier was eight years old when Francisco Franco died and, as he explains, growing up under the Francoist dictatorship “marked me for life, and would mark my art and the way I express myself. I have championed Basque art and regionalism for many years, using informal and abstract modern art to denounce and express my opposition to the cultural and political conservatism imposed by the Francoist regime.

Made out of wood used in the renovation of the Encartaciones Museum carried out by the architects Javier Muñoz and Josu Urriolabeitia, Zaldi is almost a metre and a half tall and 25 centimetres wide. Using the legacy of protest art, this surrealist work, which references the 2,000 bombings that took place during the 400 days that the Civil War lasted in the Basque Country, is the perfect contemporary representation of the disasters of war. It has profound retrospective and critical significance for the plastic arts from the Civil War to the death of Franco that deal with the international dimensions of the conflict.

When a conflict begins, whether it is military, economic, social or all at once, art reacts immediately and becomes a mirror of reality. Out of their solidarity, artists can make their work a historical document of protest and, through historical memory, express the importance of tolerance, non-violence, and human rights, and encourage a culture of peace in society. Works of art as a symbol of commitment to peace, liberty and coexistence. Zaldi is a divinity that appears in many Basque legends, is frequently portrayed as a blue horse. The image of this animal has reached our time associated with various myths. In many popular tales, many genies or mythic figures are represented by a horse. The presence of this animal for our ancestors held in great esteem, determined various forms of expression or symbols that articulate their spiritual life. Some subterranean genies and other figures who appear in the myths of the Basque people appear in the figure of a horse.

In Zaldi's world, which is above all a mythological one, the mouth opens in a desperate cry. That figure suffers in a space that is neither interior nor exterior, but somewhere literally uninhabitable. And, even so, it seems to try to stand up on the slightest ground to look, although it cannot understand, a horror that escapes from vulnerability. The desperate gesture of the figure. You can see what was happening in Spain, the sculpture contains destruction and renewal, despair and hope at the same time.”