On Thursday 15 October, at 7.00 pm, the URIBITARTE40 Gallery at BilbaoArte will host the ‘Shippeo’ event, which will see changes made to M. Benito Píriz’s exhibition ‘Shooting Star and Heart’.
One-day alteration to the exhibition with Jone Elorriaga.
SHIPPEO is an intervention that will take place over a single day as part of the exhibition Shooting Star and Heart by M. Benito Píriz. The artist Jone Elorriaga has created inflatable pieces specifically for the works featured in the exhibition; some of these are integrated into the works already on display in the space to bring about a transformation in them.
The term ‘shippeo’ comes from the English word ‘shipping’, which is derived from ‘relationship’ – a term that belongs to internet culture and is used to express the desire for two people to form a romantic relationship, even when such a relationship does not exist. ‘Shipping’ involves imagining a connection and projecting onto two individuals the possibility that they might cease to be perceived as separate individuals and become a couple.
In SHIPPEO, the aim is not to create a dialogue between the pieces, nor to highlight their differences, but rather to facilitate a process of mimicry. These new pieces seek to resemble and adapt to what already exists, with the intention of blurring the boundaries between them.
The installation is based on the idea of ceasing to be two and becoming one. The inflatables are positioned, inserted or placed against M. Benito Píriz’s pieces, taking on their shapes, colours, volumes and gestures.
Mimicry is understood as the ability to adapt to one’s surroundings or to others through appearance, colours or behaviour, in order to go unnoticed, to blend in or to ensure survival. In SHIPPEO, it also becomes a form of desire: to resemble the other in order to draw closer to them, to merge with them so that one can no longer distinguish where one ends and the other begins.
Free admission.
Shooting star and heart is both the title and the outcome of an exploration of the forces of projection and restraint. Benito sees projection as a fleeting force that propels the body outwards, and lending itself to change, discovery and confrontation. An impulse that bursts forth like a shooting star, fading as the body tires or the emotion subsides. Restraint, by contrast, works inwards, regulating, holding and absorbing in a heartfelt, steadfast effort to guard and protect.
Doing things —from the heart— means choosing sensitivity and allowing emotion to become part of the movement, and having an outburst opens up the space needed to transform, move forward and continue shaping oneself. Indeed, M. Benito adopts a hybrid starting point: a fleeting heart that exposes and restrains itself at the same time. Rather than opposing concepts, projection and restraint both play a part in shaping an ever-evolving identity. Similarly, the works that make up the exhibition emerge from a constant exchange between outburst and protection, exposure and refuge, aggression and affection.
JONE ELORRIAGA SOTO
Graduated with a degree in Art from the University of the Basque Country (EHU) in Leioa in 2016.
In 2026, she held a solo exhibition at Montehermoso Kulturunea in Vitoria-Gazteiz with the project “POR TODAS ESAS VECES”, was awarded third prize in the Ertibil Bizkaia travelling exhibition, and also created installations at the Alaro electricity pylon in Mallorca and in the Guggenheim Bilbao auditorium as part of the “Pensar Mañana” project. Previously, she had displayed her inflatables in projects such as “Lanean” at the Sala Rekalde in Bilbao, where she incorporated the hall’s columns into her works, and at the Las Cigarreras Cultural Centre in Alicante, as part of the group exhibition “Umbral”.
Notable among her solo exhibitions in Bilbao are those held at Dpto and at the La Taller Gallery under the title ‘HINCHA2: red and pink’. She has received grants for the visual arts from, amongst others, the Basque Government, the Provincial Council of Biscay on two occasions, and the Astarloa Kulturgintza creation grant from Durango, which included a solo exhibition at the Durango Museum of Art and History.
M. BENITO PÍRIZ
Durango, 1992
Lives and works in Bilbao.
Resident artist at BilbaoArte from 2024 to 26.
Benito Píriz graduated in Fine Arts from the University of the Basque Country (EHU) in 2014 and holds a Master’s degree in Research and Creation in Art (2015). The artist has presented their work in solo exhibitions at venues such as the Montehermoso Cultural Centre, with the exhibition “Travieso”, and at Sala Rekalde with “Pikete-tuning”, as well as at BilbaoArte, RKE and Torre de Ariz; and in group exhibitions at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Horcasitas Jauregia, and galleries such as Mäa (Bilbao), Artnueve (Murcia) and La Bibi + Reus City (Palma). Píriz has received first prize at Getxoarte, second prize at Ertibil and third prize at the La Rioja Young Art Show; and complemented residencies at Babestu at Azkuna Zentroa and the two-year residency at BilbaoArte.