- Mutuberria received the Euskadi Literature Award in the category of Illustration of Literary Works in 2022 and, as in the previous four years, he has been responsible for designing this year’s Itzulia poster
The Bilbao Fine Arts Museum has hosted, today, the presentation of the poster for the 62nd edition of Itzulia. As has been done in the last four editions, the poster has been designed by the winner of the Euskadi Literature Award in the category of illustration of literary works. This year the poster is the work of the illustrator Maite Mutuberria who won the Euskadi Literature Award with her work “Irrimola”.
In the presentation of the Itzulia 2023 poster, the Minister of Culture and Language Policy and spokesman for the Basque Government, Bingen Zupiria, the president of OCETA (Cycling Organization of the Basque Country), Julián Eraso, the author Maite Mutuberria and the director of the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum, Miguel Zugaza. The 62nd edition of the Itzulia Basque Country will be held from April 3 to 8. It will start in Vitoria-Gasteiz and after six stages it will end in Eibar.
Maite Mutuberria herself has explained the creative process of the poster: “turn, turn, turn. At first glance, the poster represents the most obvious meanings of the word itzuli (to turn). At the same time, I wanted to reflect on the enormous effort that cyclists make in the race. Like the rock of Sisyphus, the cyclists push the bike towards the top to descend back into the valley in a continuous turn”. As for the design, she has used colors that are typical of Itzulia “intensifying the traditional green, red and white to suggest the joyful atmosphere that exists in our streets during race days. To these colors I have added the striking yellow of the jersey”. Maite Mutuberria explained that in order to carry out the work, she immersed herself in the years of the early 20th century, at the time of the creation of Itzulia: “I have looked at the works of the Basque painters of that time with attention and pleasure, trying to learn something from their stylized modes, tones, and ways of representing tradition.”
Minister Zupiria recalled that “before the Civil War, high-level Basque artists were in charge of making the Itzulia posters and in 2019 we decided to recover this tradition. This initiative offers Basque creators new opportunities to show their work and reach a wide and unusual audience”. Since 2019, the Itzulia posters have been designed by Yolanda Mosquera, Asisko Urmeneta, Miren Asiain and Javier de Isusi. They are all stored in the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum.
During the presentation, Miguel Zugaza, director of the museum, pointed out that “graphic design and illustration are expressed in the museum through an important collection of posters that, in recent times, have been extraordinarily enriched. For this reason, we are happy to serve as a presentation framework for the Itzulia poster and, of course, to incorporate the original design into the collection, this year a magnificent work by Maite Mutuberria. All of this affects, precisely, the desire to offer the public creative manifestations that provide a broader vision of the artistic and broaden its value to areas related to everyday life and, in this case, to one of the most popular and heroic sports. ”.
For his part, Julián Eraso, president of the organizing association OCETA, commented that “for yet another year, Itzulia transcends sports and is in the news for a cultural and artistic theme. We have been with this collaboration for several years now and we cannot be happier. Itzulia is not just a cycling race, it is also a tourist showcase for our territory and with actions like this, also a cultural showcase”.
Maite Mutuberria
Maite Mutuberria, the person in charge of designing the Itzulia Basque Country 2023 poster, has a degree in Audiovisual Communication and a higher technical degree in Illustration. She has illustrated more than thirty books, among others, “Barruko hotsak”, “Joemak eta Polasak”, “Lilo” and “Xomorropoemak”. She is also the author of the graphic novel “Lohia.” She has received the Kirico, Lazarillo, Peru Abarka and Etxepare prizes and her work has been selected in the 2022 Ibero-American Catalog. Last year she received the Euskadi Literature Prize in the Literary Work Illustration modality for her work “Irrimola”.
