Landscape Does Not Exist

Landscape is a construction of our mind therefore it can be reconstructed. Culture, education and the place where we live all influence our perceptions and interpretations, blurring reality under a subjective fog. This project questions the traditional ways of seeing and of representing Basque landscape, and offers new methods of reflection.

Basque Country is located in northern Spain and its physical characteristics are strongly associated with symbols of rural life, but these are often distorted. Compounding this distortion is our distance from older ways of living: as industry and urban life have transformed, we are left unfamiliar with the reality of the past. We therefore have difficulty perceiving and interpreting our environment in any meaningful way.

For this project limestone is the element used to analyze the Basque landscape and to illuminate it in an original way. Limestone is the most abundant stone in the Basque mountains and as a result of its properties it appears in distinctive forms, perforated by natural voids carved by water. These forms have symmetry with the artificial voids created by man in the form of quarries. Considering these artificial and natural voids together, we can see complication and variation that is usually hidden from our eyes. Unveiling them can help us to understand better the complexity of the landscape, of history, and of a culture.