euskalkultura.eus

New York, NY.  Maider Lopez’s creations always surprise her audiences, introducing slight variations in places and common activities, requiring the viewer, or participant, to rethink his/her relationship with the social space.  One of her recent works, entitled “Polder Cup” is a kind of soccer championship played between irrigation canals –now being shown at the Studio & Curatorial Programs (ISCP) of New York.

The exhibit, which opened on February 15th, includes videos, photos, and texts about the “Polder Cup,” a soccer championship that was organized by the girl from Donostia in Rotterdam, with the collaboration of the following institution: SKOR and Witte de With, both from the Netherlands.  On this occasion, the peculiarity of the story stems from the placement of the soccer fields: a series of fields that were crisscrossed by irrigation ditches called polders on irregular terrain. “The irregular terrain made the players change the game and conceptualize new strategies and rules.  Through this site-specific intervention, Lopez formed new ideas of public space and social development through the pastime of soccer,” explained the ISCP.

[One of the Polder Cup participants came to try the water in the canals (photo Maider Lopez)]

The artist was a student of the ISPC in 2003, and now was chosen by the center to exhibit her latest work.  Maider Lopez lives and works in Donostia, but her work has taken her all over the world with exhibits at Venice’s 51st Biennale, CaixaForum, Barcelona, Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, SCAPE’s art Biennale in Christchurch, in public space; or Zendai MoMA museum in Shanghai, 9th Biennale of Sharjah, Witte de With and SKOR, the Netherlands, Al-Ma’mal Foundation for Contemporary Art, Jerusalem, the Canadian Center of Architecture, Montreal, The Centre Pompidou Metz.  She graduated from the College of Fine Arts in Bilbao and also has a Masters from Chelsea College of Art and Design, in London.

-For more information on the exhibit, here
-Maider Lopez’s website: www.maiderlopez.com