by Endika Basaguren
ABOUT THIS PROJECT
The title comes from a line in the Basque Christmas song Hator, Hator — a song about longing for home. It’s a fitting name for a project that set out to answer a quietly radical question: what does it mean to be Basque when you’re thousands of miles from the Basque Country? Bilbao-based artist Endika Basaguren, along with collaborators Amaia Hormaetxea and photographer Ander Basaguren, traveled to San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chino, Las Vegas, and New York to find out. The result is an audiovisual documentary woven from interviews, photographs, and live performances — a portrait of a culture that refuses to stay put.
ABOUT THE CREATOR
Endika Basaguren is a Bilbao-born artist whose work spans drawing, installation, photography, and performance. He’s shown at venues including the Tate Modern in London and has spent decades using art to explore identity, memory, and social context. Txipli Txapla Pum Amerikatik grew out of a deep fascination with the diaspora — and the realization, as Basaguren put it, that Basque-Americans “live the Basque culture in a way that is stronger than many people here.” The project was supported by the provincial government of Bizkaia and exhibited at the Euskal Museoa in Bilbao.
WHY IT MATTERS
Most conversations about Basque identity take place in the homeland. This project flips that. By coming here — to our communities, our picnics, our pelota courts — Basaguren made the case that the Basque Country doesn’t end at its borders. It goes wherever its people go. That’s a story worth telling. We’re proud it includes us.
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