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A retrospective of the work of Basque-Mexican architect, Imanol Ordorika, will be on exhibit from September 4th to the end of the month at the Bizkaian Delegation of the Official College of Basque-Navarre Architects. Exiled to Mexico with his family at the age of eight, Ordorika grew up and was educated in Mexico, even if his work is representative of the contribution of exiles to the urban development in this Latin American country and towards the fusion of the two cultures. 

Bilbao, Bizkaia.  The BIA (Bilbao Bizkaia Architecture), dedicated to the revitalization of Bizkaian architecture and urbanism, inaugurated an exhibit on September 4, entitled, “The Constant Search for Art,” dedicated to the work of the architect from Lekeitio Imanol Ordorika Bengoetxea,  who sought refuge in Mexico after the Civil War. 

The exhibit addresses the contribution of exiles to the urban development of the Latin American country and the fusion in Ordorika’s work of the styles from both cultures.  As a matter of fact, Mexico is the invited country to the BIA Urban Regeneration Forum that is being celebrated this month in Bilbao.

The exhibit can be seen until September 30, 2014 at the Bizkaian Delegation of the Official College of Basque-Navarre Architects.

Architect and Sculptor

Imanol Ordorika Bengoechea was born in Lekeitio in 1931, and at the age of eight years old, he traveled as a refugee to Mexico.  He studied at the School of Architecture at the Autonomous University of Mexico, where he ended up as a Professor of Architectural Composition until his death in 1988. 

His style is notable for the use of vivid colors; the game of textures and metals, plastics and even fabrics, the mathematically achieved proportion and shapes, and the economy of resources.  Ordorika was also a noted sculptor, whose designs stand out due to their plasticity and expressiveness. 

Among his works is the Autonomous University of the State of Hidalgo, the Hotel El Cid in Mazatlan, and the Housing Unit or Infonavit in Iztacalco. 

The exhibit will include a talk on his work on September 23, at the Bizkaia Aretoa at 19:00pm.