We are now in the realm of emotions, of cultural and historical sensations that accompany our journey through the world of wine.

Today, five unique buildings make up the Lordship and Bodega de Otazu. Everywhere you look there is a place to anchor your eyes. The church of San Esteban, from the 12th century, was the first stone of this natural amphitheater of great beauty.

The 14th centuryOtazu Tower, one more point in the chain of medieval defensive towers that once abounded throughout the Etxauri mountain range and the vicinity of Pamplona. The 16th century Renaissance Palace and the oak forest restore the splendor of a historically recovered area.

The two remaining buildings are the old and the new winery. One in the shadow of the other. The old winery, in the purest French style, was built in 1840 and today, in addition to housing the headquarters of Bodega Otazu, is a real wine museum, a historical journey through a frank way of understanding the care of the vineyard and winemaking.

The extraordinary samples of contemporary art that are found in Bodega Otazu, once again become a historical reflection of its origins.

Our pieces of contemporary art in the landscape

Twelve works explain the narrative of the collection that Bodega Otazu exhibits among vineyards, buildings and landscapes. They do not want to root a sculpture garden or be giants stranded in a green ocean. They are stops on a journey through contemporary art. The visitor can understand them as stations. Places of space, time and matter. A line that is a story.

From the water and glass of the Chilean artist Alfredo Jaar in The color of our lives to the piece, between physical and sound, by the Argentine Leandro Erlich(Valkyries of Otazu) through the colossal presence, like an ancient queen, of the bronze The lady of Otazu, signed by the Valencian Manolo Valdés. The landscape follows one another like a traveler looking through the window of a train. The stations pass by. Xavier Mascaró, Jim Dine, Arturo Berned, Rafael Barrios, Baltasar Lobo, Asier Mendizabal, Hans-Peter Feldmann. In all of them you can get off and add a chapter to this book of art that Otazu proposes just by looking at it. Between vineyards, buildings and landscapes. Until your eyes are pulverized.

Manolo Valdés, La Dama de Otazu, 2003

Valencia, Spain, 1942

Women who are worthwhile are those who are not willing to wait for anyone. With its 3.60 meters of bronze, the enormous sculpture, from the Damas series, by Manolo Valdés (Valencia, Spain, 1942), provokes the sensation of not waiting. Being motionless is a temporary circumstance. The work evokes an ancient goddess or a queen of a lost time. With a headdress-crown that highlights her status. Lordship.

Baltasar Lobo, Au Soleil, 1970

Zamora, Spain, 1910

Au Soleil (In the Sun) represents the trail left in the wake of the innovation introduced by the sculptors of the historical avant-garde. Baltasar Lobo (Spain, 1910, France, 1993), who was trained by image makers, recovers the ancestral technique of direct carving. Extracting the form from the stone (generally marble) with a chisel. Al Sol vindicates the classical beauty that stems from Iberian sculptures and the rupturist vision of his friend Picasso.

Xavier Mascaró, Guardián I y Guardián II, 2008

Paris, France, 1965

There they stand, hieratic, like a cypress tree. Protecting the vines. Two iron giants, three meters high and weighing almost a ton. Their position is reminiscent of a praying Buddha. So, are they protecting or meditating? Maybe both. They talk to each other about the tranquility of the vineyard and the uncertainty of time. Xavier Mascaró (Paris, France, 1965) offers his particular blend. He reminds us that wine is reflection and aging.

Leandro Erlich, Valkirias de Otazu, 2013

Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1973

And suddenly, the surprise. About 80 tuned aluminum tubes that reproduce the most famous verse of Wagner’s work The Ride of the Valkyries from the third act of Die Walküre. But Leandro Erlich (Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1973) has conceived it as something between a music box and an active installation. Thanks to a drumstick, when running, the tubes are hit and reproduce the music of the German genius. And suddenly, the sound

Asier Mendizabal, Crudo zarzo, 2017

Guipúzcoa, Spain, 1973

The best way to approach the work of this Basque sculptor is to imagine the entry of a word in a dictionary with multiple meanings. In his work there are references to the purely sculptural, but also to the social, the political or the history of art. Crudo zarzo is an elaborate formwork of hazel sticks and cement. Its spherical shape is fractured and traces a path that leads to the emptying of the void, by the sculptor Jorge Oteiza (1908-2003). A reference for Mendizabal. But it is a polysemic sculpture. Its exterior form and that skin of whitish brick dialogues with the Roman apse of the church of San Esteban. The calm of the concrete is disturbed by a hole. Through it one can contemplate a horizon of vines, which, in turn, create a weave of vertical and horizontal lines. As if the vines were painting a mondrian.

Hans-Peter Feldmann, Tiempo, 2019

Düsseldorf, Germany, 1941

Nature is time. Wine is time in the barrel. The work of the German artist surprises by its apparent simplicity. That is his talent. Claiming the simple but activating that idea of restlessness. Does there have to be something more? And there always is. Time is the only monumental work preserved in Spain by a creator who is a historical reference of conceptual art. A clock embedded in the earth and slightly inclined, is it sprouting or sinking? Each face gives a different time. The passage of existence. Seconds, minutes, hours, days; life. The cycle of nature -as opposed to that of man- is almost infinite. A monumental sculpture that reminds us of the fragility and the real size of the human being. And that, deep down, we are made of time.

Rafael Barrios, Obtusa, 2013

Louisiana, United States, 1947

It is a trompe l’oeil and also one of the most recognizable works of Bodega Otazu. A three-dimensional sculpture that lacks a dimension. It is an optical game that the spectator only perceives when he approaches the piece. “Magic”. The force of art to create illusions. See beyond, challenge the senses and space. Rafael Barrios (Louisiana, United States, 1947) is a pink illusionist on a green sea.

Xavier Mascaró Músico I, 2007. Jim Dine Tools + fire, 2013.

Xavier Mascaró, Musician I, 2007

Paris, France, 1965

What is an iron piper doing in a vineyard? Propose, like Hamelin, his siren song. Attract presence. The sculptures by Xavier Mascaró (Paris, 1965) convey an image of calm. Stopped time. They work just like photographs. But also, perhaps, because the Sierra del Serbil is in the background, an air of surprise descends. Something is going to happen, but the viewer doesn’t know what. He will have to find out. Listen to the music.

 

Jim Dine, Tools + fire, 2013

Ohio, United States, 1935

Two separate bronze hearts. At the base, a series of tools. Jim Dime’s message (Ohio, United States, 1935) could well be interpreted in a direct way: love demands effort, work. Nothing is taken for granted. In the same way as in art. The American creator indebted to Pop aesthetics, he brings to our time the universality of a message. As was repetition for Andy Warhol.

Alfredo Jaar, El color de nuestras vidas, 2015

Santiago de Chile, Chile, 1956

The magical power of four buckets of water that keep the proportion of the volume of some of the wines that Bodega Otazu makes. White, red, rosé, sparkling. Water is always in motion. Swing against the glass guardians. In the silence that newly created sea is heard beating on the rock. Water. An essential element in the vineyard. But also the Sun. The compendium where the vine takes root. Water, sun and earth. The space occupied by the cubes. In the background, they are reflected in the Romanesque church of San Esteban. A window into Otazu’s history.

Arturo Berned, Cabeza X, 2012

Madrid, Spain, 1966

In the work of Arturo Berned (Madrid, Spain, 1966) his training as an architect is perceived. Lines, angles, planes that intertwine and form a mesh. They are words applied to fabrics, because theirs is made of metal. Head X collects all those visions. But it is also a door. The hole in the tree from Alice in Wonderland, the first work that the visitor finds at the entrance to Bodega Otazu.

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