02_02_2018_noticia_EyP_barabaikiExposicion

Barabaiki Casa de Arte has inaugurated today its first art exhibition , "Colors from Azania". The young social business , formed by seven students of the University of Navarra, has presented its project, as well as its first sample, consisting of twelve works by Rhino, Kajo and Chitunguu, three Tanzanian artists with whom this Art House has begun to collaborate.

Barabaiki, a project born at the end of 2015, seeks the promotion of new artists and reflection on art. It is an art house that allocates 100% of its profits to scholarships and projects of Education in the artists' countries of origin. Students buy works of art by African artists to sell them and invest in training projects in that continent. To this end, they have a Foundation to provide scholarships to teachers, students and artists and to promote the use of art as tool for human development .

"We are a business because they, the artists, are the protagonists of their own development. They are the ones who are going to promote culture and creativity in their society. We are a tool", said Laura Venzal, president of Barabaiki. 

Creativity, the engine of human development

For this reason, Venzal argues that "human beings cannot advance without creativity, because if we abandon creativity, we also abandon our capacity to create, our capacity to evolve. Therefore, creativity is the engine of that human development that we pursue: both staff, and social. Both materially and culturally".

The first exhibition of Barabaiki is focused on Tanzania, where the students have started to work, but its intention is to extend to other countries. Carmen Basanta, pedagogical director of the social business , has revealed what the name of the first exhibition means: "It is the name of a disappeared city that, according to some research, can be located on the coast of East Africa, between Kenya and Tanzania and that had a great commercial activity". Barabaiki, he said, "wants to bring to light the contemporary art of what was once Azania".

For her part, Blanca Basanta, communications director of project, thanked the support received from the University Museum of Navarra, with Fernando Echarri as its director educational , since "it shows that talking about art and Education is of interest".

The exhibition will remain open until February 9. Also participating in the presentation were Rocío Ysasi, Finance Director; Marianna McMillan, Social Impact Director; and Andrea Isa, from the creative team.