We might say that the project for Chillida-Leku was conceived in 1984, when the Chillida family purchased the first parcel of the Zabalaga estate. In fact, the idea was actually an old aspiration of the sculptor. Let’s listen to his own words. “One day I dreamt of a utopia: to find a space where my sculptures could rest and where people could walk among them as if walking through the woods.” The Chillidas spent a long time searching for an appropriate space and today the dream is a solid re-ality. “We’ve turned the utopia into some-thing concrete, and we’ve managed to do so with no outside funding, relying solely on our own effort and means,” says Pilar Belzunce.

 

San Sebastián, early Eighties. The Chillidas visit Zabalaga as guests of the property owners. When they leave, as if by telepathy, Eduardo and Pilar come to the same conclusion: this is the perfect place for their project. In 1984 they bought the first piece of the estate (20,000 square metres, plus the central farmhouse) and later purchased sections until their property amounted to a total of thirteen hectares. At that time Zabalaga was an expansive piece of land used for grazing. The central jewel, the farmhouse, was essentially in ruins. Built in 1543, this house is one of the oldest buildings still standing in Gipuzkoa.

 

The job since then has not been an easy one. The most complicated part was the restoration of the farmhouse. Chillida has turned it into yet another work of art: the exterior has remained as true to the original as possible, including the stately coat of arms, while the inside was gutted to give it a whole new personality. The sculptor says that he “talked” to the building as he worked. “I would ask the house what it wanted to look like. As I walked through the interior I would ask it if it wanted to keep this or that wall or floor, and the house turned out according to its own indications.” For the architectural project, Chillida’s artistic intuition was backed by Joaquín Montero, an architect who has worked with Chillida on a number of urban projects. Montero recalls that the recon-struction work was carried out in a very peculiar way, with no budgets nor dea-  dlines. “Eduardo established the method, following his own work schedule, moving forward step by step, his only consideration being quality and a job well done.” Montero goes on to say, “When I heard Eduardo talk about listening to the building and following its advice, I thought he was just speaking poetically, but in time I re-  alised, that in a way, the house really did guide us.” When the farmhouse was completely refurbished and the plan for the museum fully developed, it was time to start thinking about visitors. Joaquín Montero himself designed the small build- ings that would be the visitor entrance and library.

 

The idea was not only to set up the estate as a museum; it had to be imbued with its own artistic personality. Here is where the role of Art professor Kosme de Barañano came in. Barañano has worked with Chillida for many years and was the one who helped the family decide on where each of the sculptures would be placed throughout the estate. “There is no set route,” he says, “the works of art are not installed in chronological order, nor is there any special itinerary leading outwards from the farmhouse. The work is conceived as a wide open space in which different kinds of dialogues go on between the pieces at varying heights, and between the sculp-tures and the house itself. Therefore, since Eduardo’s sculptures take on a different appearance from different angles, Zabalaga should be seen as a set of sculptures that can be contemplated in a variety of ways.

 

Another person very much involved in the gestation of Zabalaga is Joaquín Goikoetxea, who might very simply be described as the state´s guardian or groundskeeper, but who has in fact been in charge of keeping the property in impeccable condition for the past twenty years. Goikoetxea, once a sheepherder in Canada, has been on the ground directly witnessing the museum´s daily evolution from utopia to reality. “Its been a long complicated process, one that´s turned out well, but it was pretty daring of us to undertake a project like this without any funding” the Chillidas say on balance.

 

This text belongs to the book "A utopia come true " written by Mitxel Ezquiaga.

History of the Museum · Zabalaga Farmhouse