Our collaboration at FIG Bilbao 2024: Awards, art and new experiences

®Rittagraf

We are pleased to share our recent participation in the International Festival of Printmaking and Paper Art, FIG Bilbao 2024, held from November 28 to December 1 at the Euskalduna Palace in Bilbao. This event, recognized as the most important printmaking fair in Southern Europe, brought together more than 60 galleries and print workshops, making it an unmissable event for collectors and art enthusiasts. Once again, we were proud to be collaborators at this festival.

Rittagraf Prize at the Cube of Temptations

This year, Rittagraf had the honor of collaborating once again on the "Cube of Temptations" project, an initiative inviting students from the final years of art and fine arts schools to creatively intervene in 2x2 meter wooden cubes, showcasing trends and explorations in printmaking. In this edition, the Argi Arte School of Bilbao and the Casablanca School of Fine Arts participated.

Among the students and artists selected were:

• Argi Arte School of Art and Design: Alberto Vilanova, Marian Martínez, Viktor Villanueva, and Ion Najarro.
• Casablanca School of Fine Arts: Houssam Kanziti Elbelrhiti, Ilyas Ouklkayd, Hafsa Sbaiti, and Rim El Adani.

Our colleague and Rittagraf director, Carlos Alguacil, was part of the jury for the Cube of Temptations 2024 alongside Pedro Galilea of Fundación CIEC (Betanzos, Spain). As part of our commitment to promoting emerging art, we awarded a €300 prize to one of the participating artists. This year, our prize went to Alberto Vilanova, a student of the higher module in art and design at Argi Arte, in recognition of his intervention on the assigned cube. This prize aims to support young artists in developing their projects and fostering their professional growth.

Program and Activities at FIG Bilbao 2024

This year’s edition featured a wide range of technical demonstrations, conferences, and meetings that enriched the experience for all attendees.

Technical Demonstrations
FIG Bilbao 2024 provided a space to discover and learn about the most fascinating techniques in printmaking and graphic art. Some of the highlights included:

• Photogravure with photopolymer plates by Ramón Freire, exploring contemporary possibilities of this technique.
• Japanese and Occiental woodcut by Fabiola Gil (Fabiola Gil Estudio), showcasing cultural and technical differences between these traditions.
• Experimental engraving on cement by Vinicius Libardoni, expanding printmaking to new surfaces.
• Embossing by Cuca Balaguer, highlighting the potential of textures and reliefs on paper.
• Woodcut by Tereza Lochmann, combining traditional methods with modern approaches.
• Screen printing by Natalia Royo (Tinta Entera), a contemporary exploration of this permeographic technique.

Conferences and Meetings
The festival also offered a rich program of talks and gatherings that encouraged reflection and the exchange of ideas. Among the most notable were:

• "Radical Paper" by Victoria Rabal (Molí Paperer Capellades), analyzing paper as a support in contemporary art.
• "Art & Women", a debate led by Alejandra Castro Rioseco and moderated by Begoña Zubieta, on the role of women in the visual arts.
• "Néstor Basterretxea 100 Years", with Gorka Basterretxea and Jesús Jauregui, commemorating the centenary of this iconic artist.
• "Washi. Japanese Paper" by Noni Lazaga, highlighting the importance of traditional Japanese paper in contemporary art.

Demonstration of photoengraving using a photopolymer plate by the artist and friend Ramón Freire

We thank FIG Bilbao for giving us the opportunity to participate in this initiative and congratulate all the students who took part in the "Cube of Temptations" for their creativity and dedication. For more information on this project and other festival highlights, you can visit the official FIG Bilbao website.

At Rittagraf, we will continue to support and promote graphic art, reaffirming our commitment to the artistic community and the dissemination of manual printing techniques.