intercambio artístico cabeza de hacha

The Artistic Exchange Cabeza de hacha (Axe head) is a programme of exhibitions and exchanges between Basque and Canadian artists and institutions, that aims to promote artistic and cultural contacts between the Basque Country and Canada.

This artistic exchange is developed via twelve artistic institutions and has the participation of six Basque artists and six Canadian artists. Every two months, one Basque work of art and one Canadian work of art cross the ocean to take part in international exhibitions in both countries. At the end of this two-monthly exhibition period, the works are given as a gift to the participating artist from the guest country.

Although the artists know in advance the place where their work will be exhibited, they will not know the identity of the visiting artist with whom they will exchange their works, thus resulting in a blind swap between both artists, and reflecting in the same way the uncertainty of the journey that inspires the Cabeza de hacha (Axe head) artistic project.

The project echoes the oldest cultural exchange between Europe and North America and is inspired by the recent discovery of a wrought iron axe head in the excavations carried out in the ancestral village of the Wendat, near Toronto, Ontario.  It has been determined that this artefact was made in the Basque Country almost 500 years ago, 100 years before the first official visit by Europeans to the region of the Great Lakes.  It is believed that this piece was bartered somewhere along the St Lawrence River by native communities from a Basque whaling station in Newfoundland and Labrador, a place recently included in the list of world Heritage Plan of UNESCO.  This axe head, which is the oldest European artefact ever found in North America, has turned the history books on their heads. The Artistic Exchange Cabeza de hacha (Axe head) is proposed as an updated version of this historical commercial route and intends to further the cultural exchanges between two countries separated by the Atlantic.