HERNANI.- Chillida Leku welcomes Koen Vanmechelen’s long-term project with the opening of Limina: Cosmopolitan Chicken Project 30. As part of the Mugak Basque Country International Architecture Biennial, the exhibition transforms the museum into a living environment where nature, art, science, and architecture converge.
Limina: Cosmopolitan Chicken Project 30 emphasizes the vital role of cultural diversity and exchange, themes that are at the heart of the project. “The fundamental principle in my work is genuine fertility—biological, cultural, creative—arises through exchange. Diversity is not a luxury; it is life’s driving force,” explains Vanmechelen.
Koen Vanmechelen is a leading contemporary artist known for his innovative fusion of art, science, nature, and society. His work explores timeless and urgent themes such as identity, diversity, globalization, and human rights. Like Eduardo Chillida, he reflects on the concept of the “limit” as a creative space. One of his guiding ideas is that “the global only exists through the generosity of the local”—a vision that echoes Chillida’s own sense of identity—“like a tree rooted in its land, but with branches open to the world.”
Curated by Jon Garbizu and Victoria Collar of Garbizu Collar Architecture, together with Gonzalo Peña Sancho from Kri Arquitectura, this exhibition invites visitors to explore lesser-known areas of the museum, where vegetation will be allowed to grow more freely. Vanmechelen transforms the museum’s artistic ecosystem, inviting visitors to become active participants in the creative process. “In this new setting, Vanmechelen’s sculptures and interventions serve as traces of a future archaeology, opening paths toward the invisible,” the curators explain.
The exhibition addresses themes such as cultural diversity as a catalyst for imagining possible futures, and fertility as a capacity for transformation and exchange beyond biological terms. “Limina is a meeting point of sculpture, architecture, and landscape, offering new ways to experience the spaces we inhabit. At Chillida Leku, we present it as an immersive dialogue,” says Mireia Massagué, Director of Chillida Leku.
Through the intersection of art, science, and architecture, Vanmechelen’s works will guide visitors through the Zabalaga estate in an exhibition that provokes questions about how we inhabit the world. Limina will also feature a public program with workshops, talks, and participatory events, embracing an open, interdisciplinary, and collaborative approach. The museum will become a dynamic space to explore potential futures through the interaction of art, landscape, and thought.
Koen Vanmechelen (b. 1965) is an internationally acclaimed artist whose multidisciplinary work places him among the most versatile thinkers of our time. At the intersection of art, science, philosophy, and community, he is an eternal traveler, seeking answers to fundamental questions around identity, diversity, globalization, and human rights.
His enigmatic works and ongoing projects invite collaboration, fostering global awareness and building communities. Together, they reflect on humanity’s shared legacy as a species and explore how we choose to live and evolve collectively.
