SAN SEBASTIÁN.- Chillida Leku has opened Harri, Lurra, Huts [Stone, Earth, Void], an exhibition exploring Eduardo Chillida’s material universe through earth and stone. The display features fifty striking works, including his well-known Lurrak—sculptures made of chamotte clay—alongside monumental and small-scale pieces in various types of stone, supported by materials such as cement and marble. Open until May 2025, the exhibition highlights the essential role of these materials in Chillida’s artistic evolution and his ability to create transcendent spaces.
“The title of the exhibition comes from Eduardo Chillida’s own words for his sculptures. With these terms, he evokes the material essence of his work. It also plays with vibrant, resonant words that reflect the identity of the Basque Country while recalling the international game rock, paper, scissors, where each material’s choice is defined by its transformative potential,” explains Estela Solana, Head of Exhibitions at Chillida Leku.
The exhibition includes guided tours, workshops, and educational activities tailored to different learning levels, bringing Chillida’s artistic foundations to new audiences. Notably, this exhibition also emphasizes environmental sustainability. “At Chillida Leku, we are committed to sustainability and aim to reduce our exhibitions’ environmental impact by reusing materials from previous displays, such as artwork pedestals. We have collaborated with La Pedrera, Tti BOVIS GROUP, the Balenciaga Museum, and the San Telmo Museum to achieve this,” says Mireia Massagué, Director of Chillida Leku.
From void to chamotte earth
The exhibition is arranged inside the Zabalaga farmhouse according to scale and material, allowing each piece to stand out and highlight its unique qualities. This approach mirrors how stone and earth appear intermittently throughout Chillida’s body of work, showcasing their transformative potential in the artist’s hands. Visitors witness the evolution of Chillida’s sculptural language and his profound dialogue with materials. “I talk to the stones when I work with them. I ask them, ‘What do you want me to do to you?’” the artist once said.
While iron—an essential material in Chillida’s work—takes a backseat in this exhibition, the focus shifts to the expressive and metamorphic qualities of stone and earth. “In Chillida’s work, these materials symbolize nature’s creative force and serve as expressive mediums that have been used by cultures throughout history,” explains Solana.
Among the three elements explored in the exhibition, emptiness holds a particularly personal significance for Chillida. This became especially evident in the mid-1960s, when he began integrating architectural principles into his sculpture, creating interior spaces within solid materials. “This led to sculptural works that celebrated light and architecture, transforming spaces into places imbued with a transcendental vision,” notes Solana.
A decade later, in the mid-1970s, Chillida discovered chamotte clay —a dense yet pliable material, paradoxically the softest he had ever used. Its physical properties fascinated him, much like stone, due to its inherent solidity. “With this material, he created his renowned Lurrak, which he humorously described as ‘a ball to get into the air’,-—a reference to a well-placed ball in pelota (Basque pelota)," the curator explains.
The plasticity provided by the earth allows Chillida to engrave the surface of the material and create hollows, incisions and indentations. To do this, the sculptor used sticks, wood or bamboo canes, giving rise to a symbolic language of his own. In the 1990s, Chillida transferred this language to the series Escuchando a la piedra [Listening to the Stone] and Harri, made in granite blocks.
The works in the exhibition come from public institutions such as the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía and private collections such as the Iberdrola Collection and the Banco Santander Collection, among others. In addition, this exhibition has the support of both the Department of Culture and the Department of Mobility, Tourism and Territorial Planning of the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa, which have collaborated with the museum since its reopening in 2019.
Eduardo Chillida's centenary in review
January 10, 2024, marked the centenary of Eduardo Chillida’s birth, an occasion commemorated by the Eduardo Chillida - Pilar Belzunce Foundation with the support of the Ministry of Culture, the Basque Government, the Gipuzkoa Provincial Council, and the municipalities of Hernani and Donostia-San Sebastián. Under the slogan Eduardo Chillida 100 Years: Meeting Place, a year-long program of events has celebrated his legacy, bringing his work to audiences worldwide.
From Austria to Chile, through Italy and with the Basque Country as the focal point, the centenary has featured nearly twenty national and international exhibitions, alongside a rich lineup of concerts, lectures, and publications.
At the heart of these celebrations is Chillida Leku—the most personal space created by Eduardo Chillida and Pilar Belzunce — which has hosted a large number of the activities of this year of celebration. The year began with the museum receiving the 2023 Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts from the Ministry of Culture, recognizing it as ‘a great work of art, where the fusion between art and nature occurs naturally.’
Throughout 2024, Chillida Leku welcomed more than 85,000 visitors, demonstrating the public’s deep connection to the sculptor’s legacy. This success has also been acknowledged in the Observatory of Culture’s Best of Culture 2024 report, where Chillida Leku ranked 20th nationwide, 4th in the Basque Country, 10th among essential museums and art centers, and 3rd in the Basque Country in the historical, monumental, and natural heritage category.
