The Machine in the Garden

Vitoria-Gasteiz is both a provincial capital and the capital of the Basque nation. Augmenting the dense 14th century city center are a number of works of modern architecture imbedded in the city fabric, including the copper-clad archaeological museum, Eduardo Chillida’s sculptural plaza, and the Fundación Sancho el Sabio [Basque national archives], which encapsulates a historic monastic cemetery.

Rioja is the premiere wine-making region in Spain, lying within the Basque country along the river Ebro, producing wine for almost 1000 years. The Peñafiel Castle Wine Museum integrates a contemporary gallery space into the medieval castle, offering fantastic views of the Rioja. Lopez de Heredia has been producing wines by hand for over 130 years, using all wood tanks and barrels crafted by in-house coopers, relying on the humidity of the river valley and the growth of mold in their wine cellars to create the optimal environment for wine production. Zaha Hadid designed a modern addition to the winery that serves as their retail space.

San Sebastián is a beautiful oceanfront city on the northern coast of Spain in the Basque country, on the Bay of Biscay. The International Conference on the Image coincided with the International Film Festival, both taking place at Raphael Moneo’s Kursaal Palace on the waterfront. The collision of the mountains and the sea create a dynamic condition at the edge of the city, marked by a number of large scale sculptures by Chillida and Oteiza, including the Wind Combs and ‘Empty Construction’. San Telmo, a museum of modern art nestled into the mountainside, is an appendage to a 16th century Dominican convent. A hike to the top of Mount Urgull gave us some amazing 360 degree views of the ocean, bays, beaches, and mountains.

A day trip to Oñati took us to the Santuary of Arantzazu, the site where the Virgin Mary appeared to a shepherd over 500 years ago which has been continually cared for by Franciscan monks.  A modern basilica was built in the 1950s as a collaboration between Basque architects and sculptors including Oteiza and Chillida. The mountain setting provided stunning views of rocky cliffs and lush landscapes. The nearby town of Lagazpia is the home of the new Chillida Lantoki, a museum inhabiting an abandoned industrial paper mill and now dedicated to demonstrating the processes by which Chillida produced his collages and sculptures.