Bulegoa z/b, an office for art and knowledge. Singular case in the divergent cultural network-context on the gentrification process in Bilbao

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5209/aris.106650
Keywords: Art and knowledge production, Alternative artistic - cultural initiatives, Bulegoa z/b, Gentrification, Bilbao
Agencies: Este estudio se contextualiza en el trabajo derivado del proyecto de investigación PREKARIART. Estudio Multidisciplinar de la Condición precaria del arte y los artistas contemporáneos (HAR2016-77767-R) de la Universidad del País Vasco/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea (UPV/EHU), financiado por el Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO) dentro del Programa de I D i estatal orientado a los retos de la sociedad, y del Grupo de Investigación Consolidado UPV/EHU GizAArtea. Diálogos Críticos arte/sociedad. El arte contemporáneo como espacio de conocimiento, laboratorio de lo social, dispositivo y realidad (ref. GIU18/153).

Abstract

Over the last two decades, a constellation of independent artistic and cultural initiatives has emerged in the city of Bilbao. Their activity forms an alternative cultural network system that provides mutual support for the city's artistic context. It is essential to highlight and locate these initiatives, as they play a critical role in the relationship between art and urban development and the prevailing cultural system, thereby constituting a specific response to the gentrification process initiated by the so-called Guggenheim Effect. By situating the activities of these initiatives in a paradoxical position, both within and outside the institutional system, we question their actual and situated functioning and the nature of their contribution, with the aim of offering a perspective which could be transferable to other situations. To this end, we selected Bulegoa z/b as a case study, as it presents methodological keys to the creation of thought around the current artistic, pedagogical, cultural, and social axis, weaving collaborations at the local and international levels. Accordingly, Bulegoa constitutes a critique not only of the cultural system, but also of artistic and academic institutions, while offering an alternative to it.

Author Biographies

Irantzu Sanzo-San Martín, Public University of Navarre

Irantzu Sanzo-San Martín understands artistic experience as a form of thinking in itself. This conceptual approach has led her to develop her work across the fields of art, education, and research. As an artist, she has exhibited her work in institutions such as Centro Huarte, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, and Ciudadela of Pamplona. She has also undertaken artistic residencies at Fundación BilbaoArte and The Banff Centre. As a researcher, she obtained her PhD in 2020 from Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour (France) and the University of the Basque Country. She has participated in the I+D+i project funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, PREKARIART (HAR2016-77767-R, AEI/FEDER, EU). In 2022, she was awarded the “Margarita Salas” Postdoctoral Research Fellowship. She has published articles in indexed academic journals, as well as book chapters, and has contributed to national and international academic conferences and scholarly events. As a faculty member, she joined the area of Art Education at the Public University of Navarre in 2022, where she is currently engaged in teaching activities.

Concepción Elorza-Ibáñez de Gauna, Universidad del País Vasco / Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea (UPV/EHU)
Concepción Elorza Ibáñez de Gauna is a researcher. She received her PhD cum laude from the University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU with the thesis Behind appearances. A Look at a Certain Specificity of Photograph (1995). She was a pre-doctoral FPI researcher (1984-1988) and professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the UPV/EHU (1988-2022), since 1997 as a tenured professor. She has also been the Academic Secretary and Vice-Dean of International Relations at this faculty.   Her research focuses on the need for art and its effective capacity for change in each of the participants involved, considering not only the environment and the figure of the artist but also the interrelationship that all of them constitute and which, in turn, constitutes them.   She has held solo and group exhibitions at the national and international levels. She has exhibited her work at the MNCARS in Madrid, the Centre del Carme del IVAM in Valencia, the University of Bordeaux Montaigne in Bordeaux, and Arteleku in Donostia, among many other venues. Her work forms part of the collections of the MNCARS, the Telefónica Foundation, the Polytechnic University of Valencia and the Photomuseum in Zarautz, among other institutions.   She has organised and participated in various international conferences, notably the launch of the International Conference on Work in Contemporary Art: Precariousness and Alternatives (2018), and has been a reviewer and coordinator of the ‘TRACK 5, Culture’ panel at the International Conference Sharing Society; the impact of collaborative collective actions in the transformation of contemporary societies (2019). She has presented papers at numerous conferences, including the CSO Congress in Lisbon (2018). The Poetics of Precarity, Leuven, Belgium (2020). And the International Congress Beyond the Museum, IVAM, Valencia (2018).   She has published numerous articles and book chapters in books and journals specialising in the field of art; she has been co-editor of books such as Arte 2003 y pensamientos en la era tecnológica (Art 2003 and Thoughts in the Technological Age) (2004), Trabajo en arte contemporáneo: precariedad y alternativas (Work in Contemporary Art: Precariousness and Alternatives) (2018), At risk. Diagnoses, Proposals and Struggles around the Precariousness of Contemporary Art (2020), Suspended Paradise. Drifts in Production and Reception in the Contemporary Art System (2022) and Begiekin aditu nazazu (2024). His current research activity primarily focuses on writing, curating, and activating various platforms that create contexts for debate around contemporary art, in dialogue with different agents linked to artistic practices, both within and outside academia.

 

 

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Published
2026-07-01
How to Cite
Sanzo-San Martín, I., & Elorza-Ibáñez de Gauna, C. (2026). Bulegoa z/b, an office for art and knowledge. Singular case in the divergent cultural network-context on the gentrification process in Bilbao. Arte, Individuo Y Sociedad, 38(3), 555-565. https://doi.org/10.5209/aris.106650
Issue
Vol. 38 No. 3 (2026)
Section
Articles

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