Room 4 of Zabalaga Farmhouse at the Chillida-Leku Museum is the setting of the temporary exhibition For Man, for Human Rights, consisting of works marking yet another step forward in the museum’s commitment to the defence of human rights and collaboration with different NGOs, previously demonstrated in the shape of solidarity events and in the drawing up of pedagogical material on the subject by our Educational Department. Eduardo Chillida’s works speak clearly of dialogue, tolerance, peace, fraternity, freedom... They are meeting places, spaces for dialogue and coexistence.

Never adhering to a single party or political idea, Chillida placed his stakes on the person, man, the human being, no matter what their race or beliefs. His work is a cry for freedom, an invitation to harmony, to understanding, a call for peace and tolerance above all else.

Not indifferent to his physical, social and cultural context, Chillida’s work, like that of another two artists, reflects a clear undertaking to his environment. The works, supportive and inviting, like Gure aitaren etxea (Our Father’s House) or Camino hacia la Paz (Way towards Peace), speak for themselves.

The exhibition essentially consists of work on paper, engravings, silkscreen printings, gravitations and several sculptures, eye-catching prints like For man, for human rights, Amnistía - Askatasuna or Artists against torture, the result of his collaboration with different organisations such as the Pro Derechos Humanos Association, on the committee of honour of which the artist sat alongside Alberti, Buero Vallejo, Jorge Guillén, Joan Miró or Tápies; or Amnesty International, for which he made several posters. Similarly present in the exhibition are his famous drawings of hands. Hands that Chillida tirelessly drew throughout his life, hands held out, open hands, friendly hands, supportive hands. 

In the words of Eduardo Chillida himself, “All men are one, we all come from the same place”. This is why the exhibition recalls the central theme of his great dream, his great project never come true, the creation of an enormous meeting place in mount Tindaya. He wanted to make “a large interior space and offer it to all men from all races and all colours, an enormous sculpture advocating tolerance”.