The Bilbao artist Xavier de Isusi has designed the poster for the 61st edition of the Itzulia Basque Country cycling event, a task entrusted to the winner of the Euskadi Prize for Literature in the category of illustration of literary works. The work was presented today at the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum.
During the event, the Basque Government Minister for Culture, Bingen Zupiria, explained that “through this assignment that we are making to the winners of the Euskadi Prize for Literature, we want to offer our creators new options to show their work and reach an audience that is not the usual one for his works. We thus recover a tradition that for many years united culture and sport”.
The author has pointed out that “the main motif of the poster is a figure pedaling a bicycle. It is a deliberately androgynous figure, it could be a man or a woman, since cycling is no longer the exclusive preserve of men and Itzulia It has a men’s edition and a women’s edition.
De Isusi explained that the drawing “is made with a single continuous line that goes back and forth like the roads on which the race runs and like the chain of the bicycle itself does. That continuous line is what builds both the main figure and those in the background: to his left the platoon that is chasing him and to his right a landscape that summarizes four characteristics of Basque geography: mountains, sea, towns and industry”.
Regarding the creation process, the author explained that “it is a drawing made by hand, with pencil and watercolor on paper, a physical technique, not a digital one, just as physical is the effort made on the bicycle”.
The 61st edition of the Itzulia Basque Country will be held between April 4 and 9. The first stage will start and end in Hondarribia, the second will be between Leitza and Viana, the third between Llodio and Amurrio, the fourth will start in Vitoria-Gasteiz and finish in Zamudio, the fifth will be between Zamudio and Mallabia, and the last stage will start in Eibar and will end at the Arrate ramps.
Source: Eitb
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