“The person I've really had a special relationship with all my life has been Pili. Yes, Pili. Pili and I have been together all our lives. St. John of the Cross once said: "I no longer tend sheep, I no longer have a profession; my only exercise is to love..." Amá is one to be reckoned with. Nothing here would have worked if it weren't for her”.

 

Pilar Belzunce De Carlos was born on October 9th 1925 in the Philippines, where the Belzunce family owned sugar plantations. She returned to Spain to live at the age of 15, after the Spanish Civil War had ended. The post-war mentality in Spain clashed with her more open-minded upbringing in the Philippine town of Ilo-Ilo.

 

Pilar met the man who was to become her lifelong companion as soon as her parents, Román Belzunce and María de Carlos, decided to settle in San Sebastian, moving the family into a house opposite the Chillidas.

You have to know Pilar Belzunce to understand Eduardo Chillida. She supported Chillida when he decided to quit his architecture studies and dedicate his time to sculpture, which at that time he hadn't even tried. At that time Paris was the place where thinkers and artists went, so Chillida felt the need to move there. After they married, in July 1950 Pili joined her husband in the French capital.

Pilar was a key figure in Chillida's life. She believed in him. Chillida provides us with an anecdote which clearly illustrates the important role Pili played in his life: “One day in Paris, I was desperate after working a year with nothing to show and I said, ‘Pili, we're going home. I'm finished'. It was 1950. I was very serious and angry, having a really rough time of it. She looked at me and said 'how can you be finished if you haven't even begun?'. After she said me that is when I wrote ‘I have yesterday's hands, I'm lacking tomorrow's’. And so I kept on searching.”.

 

From that time on, Pili would support and encourage all of the important decisions of Chillida's life.

When Chillida finished his first sculptures, he asked Pilar Belzunce to handle all of the financial matters so as not to mix art and money and to concentrate on creating art without any strings. At that point Pilar Belzunce took charge of negotiating with art galleries, seeing all of the infrastructure needs, being Chillida's public relations manager and heading up a household of eight children.

 

In 1982 the Chillidas launched a project that was to change the life of the Chillida family and the Basque cultural panorama, a project that would allow the world to enjoy Chillida's work in his own country. Pilar and Eduardo discovered the Zabalaga farmhouse by chance. The masterpiece of 16th century Basque architecture had fallen into a considerable state of disrepair, as had the gardens surrounding the farmhouse. Pilar encouraged Eduardo Chillida to refurbish the estate, promising once again to see to the practical matters so that Chillida could continue his creative work. From that point onward, all of the sculptor's efforts went into Chillida-Leku. New sculptures were deposited at the Chillida-Leku, while Pilar Belzunce tried to recover some of the work that had already been sold with the idea of exhibiting the different phases of her husband's career.

 

This is how the Museum was born. Chillida-Leku opened its doors on 16 September 2000. Pilar Belzunce presides over the Chillida-Leku Museum Board of Directors and heads the Eduardo Chillida – Pilar Belzunce Foundation, created with her husband for the purpose of promoting an understanding of the work and life of Eduardo Chillida.

 

Biografía Pilar Belzunce's Biography · Pilar Belzunce's Gallery