Helmugak is a result of the Marina 2.0 project, which has been the focus of my creative process for the last two years. During this time my work has been based on the research and review of the formal representation of the marine genus.
Given that most representations are two dimensional, my work consists in the realization of the third dimension, departing from the familiar plane through instillations, videos, a postal exchange representing the flow of ocean currents, photographs, and drawings, the last meant to evoke the concept of ephemerality.
It was during this development that the Syrian conflict arose and the sea took on a new meaning. This was the birth of Helmugak, representing hopes and dreams sometimes achieved and other times lost. The sea becomes a grave and a border. Through video, installations, and drawings with an ‘ordinary’ pen, the images we know of the sea are represented. But at the moment in which life and death by drowning are discussed, the western conception of the sea changes. The beautiful pictures of waves and fisherman that everyone from Bilbao, including myself, has ever seen in their grandparents house sadly becomes cruel.