Itsasmuseum opens the temporary exhibition 10 years of art on port containers. A tour of the winning works from the ten editions.
The project began in 2013, the year in which Itsasmuseum, in collaboration with UPV/EHU and Aurtenetxea Containers, promoted an artistic competition that invited students from UPV/EHU’s Faculty of Fine Arts to transform shipping containers—common elements in freight transport—into works of urban art, with the aim of encouraging creativity and artistic experimentation in public spaces.
To date, 10 editions have been held, characterised by their diversity both in formal approach and in the themes addressed, covering a wide range of perspectives and content. Many of the winning projects have explored themes related to the sea, sustainability, industry or Bizkaia’s maritime history—all of them cross-cutting themes in Itsasmuseum’s museum narrative.
The works selected across all editions have offered outstanding artistic quality and variety: Baluarte 1,2,3,4,5 (2013), by Alberto Díez and Leo Burge; All Iron (2014) by Mar de Dios and Miguel Puertas; Contenido, contenido (2015) by Juan Malk; Paperezko Itsasontzia (2016) by Álvaro Aroca; El camino de la sirga (2017) by Xabi Dobaran and María de Viana; Plastikozko itsasoak (2018) by María Acuña Martínez; #Lan Bikaina #Buen Trabajo (2019) by Laura Martínez Martín; Tenemos nombre (2021) by Idoia Leache; La vida entre mareas de la Fundación Punta Begoña (2023) and, finally, in 2024 greentoblue.4 <3, by artist Leyre Arraiza, a work that remains on display in the museum’s esplanade.
In the ninth edition, as part of the museum’s 20th anniversary, exceptionally and thanks to a collaboration with the Fundación Punta Begoña, an exhibition was organised on the intangible heritage of the estuary, using port containers to give a voice to all those trades linked to the maritime and industrial heritage of the Bilbao estuary.
The exhibition, which offers a visual tour of all the winning works—with images and scale models of each one, as well as a brief explanation of each project—will remain open until 29 Ekaina 2025 and admission will be free.
