‘Between Walls and Desires’, by photographer Mikel Muruzabal, shines at the Maisonnave HotelIban Aguinaga
Almost without being aware of it, Mikel Muruzabal (Pamplona, 1977) had the need to do something with the feelings of “immobility and frustration” that saturate our time since the crisis of 2008, which were accentuated by the pandemic and which are intensified today with continuous wars such as those in Ukraine and Palestine.
“We endured difficult years,” says the photographer from Pamplona, reflecting on the meaning of his series Between Walls and Desireswhich will be on display until September 30 in the hall of the Hotel Maisonnave.
A project of 8 photographs printed on aluminum with which the New Art Cycle of 2023/2024, a programming that already meets ten years in which more than 25 projects artistic works by Navarrese, national and international creators in a space whose philosophy is to make art more accessible to people and influence the culture of the city.
A response to the post-COVID era
Muruzabal reflects from one perspective at a time introspective and challenging about the barriers what we face and the wishes that keep us standing. Capturing the figure of a woman literally trapped on concrete blocks, this series examines the impossibility of movement and the insatiable thirst for freedom.
“The beauty of photography is that it suggests, and the viewer completes the rest”
Mikel Muruzabal. Photographer
The glass of water, a symbol of unmet basic needs, complements each image, underlining the distance between reality and our desires. Between Walls and Desires born in response to the post-COVID era and the conflicts like the wars in Ukraine and Palestineoffering a disturbing reflection of the immobility and frustration that saturate our time.
“It seems that we assume all injustice and difficulty, we add them and add them, and it seems that we have no end to enduring,” says the photographer. We are, like the woman in his series, caught up in the trap net of a system that takes away freedom. “Standing in cement, and with a thirst that we cannot quench; “We cannot get what we want or what we need,” points out the author.
Two visitors contemplate one of the photographs from the series ‘Between Walls and Desires’.
Photography today
Professional photographer with a long and recognized career in advertising for big brands that combines with more personal projects and artistic that move between the architectural landscape and the conceptual portrait, Muruzabal assures that, faced with the saturation of images and short videos that bombard us with acceleration, many days he thinks “that photography is dead; I get the feeling that he is no longer able to express something and have people listen to him.”
Even so, he continues to commit to cultivating this art to “suggest, That’s the beauty of photography; and what a spectator complete the rest”.
The author
Mikel Muruzabal works daily at the advertising photography and CGI for national and international brands (Sanex, Lay’s, Atlético de Madrid), and in his most artistic or personal facet he has moved between the architectural landscape, with works on Berlin, Los Angeles, Bilbao and Benidorm (the latter awarded the Lux Oro award) and the conceptual portrait.
Immobility and frustration made image.
Others awards to his credit are the Fuji ProMaster, and the one he holds most dear, the Rincones de Pamplona award, the first competition he entered and which encouraged him to dedicate himself professionally to photography. He was chosen among 10 photographers worldwide to participate in TEN by Fotolia, a collaborative proposal between photographers and digital artists.
His work has been published in magazines and booksmainly from architecture (This Brutal Word, Phaidon) and widely featured on creativity and photography websites.
