MASKARADA

MASKARADA is a photographic project that brings together a series of images where women play a leading role and personify personal reflections inspired by the culture and mythology of the Basque Country. The characters portrayed in these images are presented in sets and styles created exclusively for this project by Eva Franco who also collaborates for textile pieces with the artisans/artists Lola Altolagirre, Kris Meraki and Yolanda Sánchez and Harry Watkins in the production of the unique footwear, accessories and set design. The collection shows the possibility of exclusive designs using natural materials from our land and a philosophy of sustainable textile work in a more contemporary way. The textile techniques used vary from ancestral methods such as corn husk braiding, to avant-garde approaches that incorporate 3D design applied to wool felting.

 

MASKARADA, although inspired by the past, also addresses current issues such as identity, the environment, personal relationships and both sentimental and territorial confrontations.

 

MASKARADA has received very positive comments from visitors and organizers of the spaces where it has been exhibited and due to its innovative nature, it has aroused interest in other areas such as education through guided tours and the arts where it has collaborated, as performance/catwalk format of its characters, with the “bertsolari”, writer and documentalist Jon Maia in the shows "Amaiur 500 urte. Aurkituko gaituzuenoi" and "Kantu bat gara. Kursaal Donostia”.

Comments

Eva Franco, starting from the roots, performs one of the great functions of art in my opinion, which is to keep us alive and in continuous transformation and debate, freeing us from being a fossil, making us reflect on ourselves through the most beautiful and humanist path; the art.


Jon Maia. Bertsolari, writer, documentalist.

Photographs and characters in which women are the absolute protagonist.


Sara Utrera. Diario Vasco

An immersive installation governed by fifteen photographs that aims to convey very diverse stories that are born from the Basque mythological imaginary, transit through the verses of Mikel Laboa and drift towards the poetics of Edgar Allan Poe.


Koldo Landaluze. Film and television series specialist

A work based on the atavistic, in a world that is lost in the times of the times, in the ancient legends and beliefs. Decorative elements, motifs and materials that come from oral literature, from rural culture, from the resources created by our ancestors that, under the gaze of Eva Franco, become the future, something new, an image that stirs and reinterprets a whole cultural substrate.


Jon Maia. Bertsolari, writer, documentalist.

Nymph trapped between nets and dreams, the crossing of two swords, the ancestral confrontation between crows and blackbirds and that look that fascinates, disturbs and captures you forever and that was first described by Poe and resolved by Alfonso Sastre in his 'Where are you? , Ulalume, where are you?’ Among them also appears the Aztec mother of gods Coatlicue whose snake clothing dictates death and life; Goddess of fertility and eternal pregnant mother.

 

Koldo Landaluze. Film and television series specialist

Images of extreme beauty that at the same time I find deeply moving to see something so true to us presented in such a new way. I see the search for a new cultural, sexual identity, through design and image.


Jon Maia. Bertsolari, writer, documentalist.

Although the works of Eva Franco are characterized for being "somewhat dark" in terms of lighting, the mixture of lights plays an important role. The public that enters the room will find most of the lights off, but thanks to the support, the paper chosen for printing and the lights hidden behind some photographs, the works of 'MASKARADA' are illuminated, drawing the attention of the viewer's gaze towards the elements of the image.


Sara Utrera. Diario Vasco

Fifteen story-images that will be preserved by wardens of twisted-shaped wood and integrated into an immersive experience in which aromas, light, objects and music play a role that is as complementary as it is fundamental.


Koldo Landaluze. Film and television series specialist

A work that through aesthetic beauty and the search for new forms and thoughts helps us to continue reinterpreting ourselves, opening necessary debates regarding new identities from a current perspective, from the times in which we live.


Jon Maia. Bertsolari, writer, documentalist.

Eva has made her own interpretation of tradition visible to the public. The visitor will see powerful images in the room. This power, however, has been finely reproduced by Franco, and the photos she has created are spectacular.


Amaia Urbieta Arruti, Hitza

A work that through aesthetic beauty and the search for new forms and thoughts helps us to continue reinterpreting ourselves, opening necessary debates regarding new identities from a current perspective, from the times in which we live.


Jon Maia. Bertsolari, writer, documentalist.

Eva has made her own interpretation of tradition visible to the public. The visitor will see powerful images in the room. This power, however, has been finely reproduced by Franco, and the photos she has created are spectacular.


Amaia Urbieta Arruti, Hitza

Proyecto fotográfico Maskarada en Gipuzkoa