Igor Rezola “Dizebi” – Gora Mugak!

“Gora Mugak!” is an expression in one of the most ancient languages ​​in Europe, Basque. The Basque concept of “muga” refers to limits, but also to limitations, borders and boundaries. Therefore, the expression “Gora Mugak!” acclaims limits and borders. “Gora Mugak!!” wants to be a personal reflection about life understood as a journey, a journey in which tangible and intangible boundaries and borders are implicit and strongly determine our personal itinerary.

I share Carlos Pazos´s thinking when he expresses that art is a partner for our travelling through the bleak prospect of life. That explains the fundamental role that art plays in my own life, and explains why I´m so interested on artistic proposals that provide a solid, sound and coherent speech.

Graffiti writing was born in the slums of New York in the late 60′s. Graffiti writers were young and had no resources, but they found a way to express the dissatisfaction, frustration and helplessness caused by an urban environment ruled by the crime gang. A game of competitiveness in which they sought fame over their peers, a game on the fringes of the law and the capitalist system that paradoxically portrayed a subsystem whose final goal was to reach the top, and finally ended up being swallowed by the system itself.

I began graffiti writing in 1998. It was a game where the main concern was to write down my name, being quantity and style the most significant elements: tags, flops, styles, walls. Personally, I think that attitude was the most relevant factor that drew me towards this subculture, and I believe that attitude still remains as its most interesting contribution.

My work has gone through different stages; in the beginning it was just a formal research on the construction of the script, later it evolved towards mural figurative paintings, with a clear prominence of portraits that gave visibility to different sociopolitical issues; nowadays my work is way more multidisciplinary, and the conceptual aspect prevails over any other.

I would like to talk and express myself about the issues that interest me, but my task constantly comes up against my own limitations and difficulties. I feel frustrated. I would like my practice to have a solid content because that´s the role I give to art; I direct all my efforts towards that purpose, but I stumble perpetually against my own inner borders.

Due to my attempts to deal with some important issues and the aim to build up a coherent and consistent speech, my practice gravitates on a precarious equilibrium, fragile and difficult to hold; I got an incessant feeling that everything will collapse at the slightest chance. Because even if we believe that we´re safe inside ourselves, that we´re a solid block without cracks, we have to interact and exteriorize our thinking through words, writings or objects, and then the conflict arises again in a way we can´t avoid, and it gives visibility to our contradictions and lack of coherence. It´s an external conflict we interiorize to exteriorize it, sort of an endless feedback.

We try to build up theories and speeches in an attempt to feel ourselves less vulnerable, even if we´re fully aware of the big lie we live in. We try to justify the unjustifiable; we even mislead ourselves to stay alive.

I don´t know if I believe in the great truths, the solid speeches and the forceful slogans. Neither in those I propose, nor in those other propose me.

That´s why I´ve started to think that maybe I would be far more honest and sincere if I talked about my inner conflicts, about my contradictions, my frustration, the difficulties, fragility, and boundaries. After all, about human nature and the absurd in human nature. I try to direct my reflections towards real issues that generate abstract concepts, in order to materialize them and make them visible. But trying to justify my work being coherent and based on a mature speech would be as complicated and dishonest as trying to justify the logics of life. Maybe it´s far more correct talking about a certain attitude.

A nonconformist attitude towards me and my environment is the engine of my work. In a way that doesn´t differ from those youngsters from New York, and being aware of absurdity and nihilism, my outlook on life, the attempt to understand it and make it meaningful, and ultimately the search itself are the main concerns in my practice.

Those issues may be unsolvable, but they make me think, reflect and build me up as an individual. At least they make me feel more alive in this long and hard journey , despite all the limits, limitations, boundaries and/or borders I have to face on my daily drift.