Container art returned to Bilbao Maritime Museum in 2019 with the seventh Artistic Interventions on Containers competition, held as part of Bilbao Art District. The initiative was organised jointly by the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Bilbao City Council, Aurtenetxea Containers and the museum.
Industrial containers as an artistic medium
The competition invited Fine Arts students to create work on industrial containers normally used for transporting goods. The installations could be seen from the urban amphitheatre formed by the Euskalduna bridge and both banks of the estuary.
One temporary proposal was selected. Painting, sculpture, audiovisual work, performance and other approaches were welcome, provided the intervention took place on the outside of the containers. The winning work would remain on the museum esplanade for a year, and the jury particularly valued proposals connected to the maritime context of Bilbao and Bizkaia.
Buen Trabajo by Laura Martínez
The winning proposal, #buentrabajo_ by Laura Martínez, recognised the work of people at the Euskalduna and La Naval shipyards while exploring the contemporary power of a hashtag.
