History

An Adventure that Begins in 2002

Mutur Beltz is a project rooted in an artistic and personal quest that began in 2002. During my third year at the San Carlos Faculty of Fine Arts in Valencia, after an enriching Erasmus experience at the Reykjavik Academy of Arts in Iceland, I began to explore new art forms, including video and sound art. Although my initial training was in drawing, painting, and sculpture, and I had musical studies at the Marbella Conservatory, it was during this period that I began to merge these seemingly separate disciplines.

In 2002, chance led me to discover the txalaparta, a traditional Basque instrument, while buying music for its cover design. This sparked a curiosity in me for the Basque Country that led me to move to Bilbao and live for a time in Getxo, where, in addition to continuing my artistic training, I took txalaparta classes. This experience was key in the evolution of my work, allowing the fusion between music and drawing, which was reflected in my first animation: "Once upon a time, a woman from Málaga in the Basque Country."

Generating the possibility of bringing together two worlds that had been parallel until then for me: music and drawing. The creation process of this work functioned as a path generating purifying stories; or perhaps they were a consequence of that potion ingested, called txakoli. Something that Pierre Loti might also have tasted, at the end of the 19th century, that French writer who fell in love with Euskal Herria. And yes, I was absorbed, stunned in a spell full of uncertainty and questions.

A large part of our existence is related to sound; each situation, each period of our life is accompanied by a sound background. That's why I remember the exact moment when I decided to stay and live in Euskal Herria and enroll in doctoral courses at the UPV-EHU. It was the early morning of the last day of the fiestas of the Old Port of Algorta in 2007 —pajama day— and there was only one txosna open and one last song. (...) The place where I decided to live, Euskal Herria, and my origins, Andalusia, are the milestones of that research that wanted to be a song to life. An attempt to understand human existence under the parameters of thinking about identity in movement (of the sonorous).

From Artistic to Rural: the Birth of Mutur Beltz

Years later, in early 2013, I met Joseba Edesa. Since then, we stopped thinking and working in the singular. Together, we were developing a humble common dream, the conjunction of our passions in a life project: Mutur Beltz. This project arose from the pastoral origin of Joseba's family, infected by the common desire for the sheep world, taking as a starting point the black-faced Carranzana sheep. This breed owes its name to the Carranza region, in Bizkaia. Joseba is from there. These types of sheep are called Mutur Beltz (black face), because their skin is black, although their wool may be white. This type of native sheep is cataloged as a breed in danger of extinction.

One day I told Joseba that I wanted to learn to milk his aita's sheep and weeks later I started my first class... After frequent contact with the sheep, together with the conversations held about the problem of wool, which today is treated as waste, an interest arose in knowing its work process. Then, an unexpected synchronic event occurred: during the spring of 2014, I traveled again to Iceland with an artistic residency grant in Gullkistan, a creative farm located in a small town called Laugarvatn, thanks to an Artistic Creation grant from the Provincial Council of Bizkaia to conclude the project helARTE is freezing to death.. And everything made sense. What a pleasant surprise it was that a spinning wheel was waiting for me in the studio. Alda Sigurðardóttir, the director of the art residence, taught me to spin.

In the last two weeks, Joseba came to visit me in Iceland and together —on this trip— we began this research on wool work. We visited small cooperatives of Icelandic women where they work with wool, they taught us to wash, card, spin with a spindle, etc. After this acquired knowledge, upon returning to Euskal Herria we had the great satisfaction of making the first ball of wool from the fleece of Joseba's aita's black-faced sheep and from there, little by little, we undertook this life project.

Curiously, all that research and awareness-raising work developed from Mutur Beltz happened as a parallel process and in a certain way tangent to the writing of that doctoral thesis. But, as we progressed, we realized that they were intimately related, since many of the tasks addressed from Mutur Beltz allowed us to reflect on the paradigm shift in the relations between art and folklore, cult and popular, urban and rural, civilized and primitive, etc. Binary confrontations related, to a certain extent, with the values and knowledge that waved the enlightened current and Romanticism; both active principles of the nationalist movements of the Contemporary Age in the West.

Rethinking the Rural: Innovation and Tradition in the Farmhouse

In 2015 we decided to move to Karrantza and occupy the family farmhouse, where we merged our lives as artists, researchers and ranchers. Our commitment to the land and nature led us to develop a project that combines innovation and tradition, with an agroecological approach. Mutur Beltz seeks to revitalize traditional trades such as spinning, carding and felting wool, while promoting the circular economy and sustainability in our valley.

Since then, Mutur Beltz has been consolidated as a life project that promotes the regeneration of the rural landscape and the recovery of the Carranzana sheep, always from a creative and sustainable perspective. Today, we continue to work hand in hand with the shepherds of Karrantza, promoting the use of local wool and ensuring fair trade that supports biodiversity and animal welfare.

Mutur Beltz: more than a Project, a Community

Mutur Beltz is much more than a productive project. It is a community space where art, culture and the rural world converge. Since 2017, we have promoted the Artistic Residence of Good Living in Karrantza, creating a space for artists and thinkers to reflect on good living in the rural environment. This residence not only seeks to support artistic creation, but also to foster dialogue between the urban and the rural, revitalizing the landscape and traditions through art and collaboration.

Mutur Beltz: Artisan Innovation that Unites Tradition and Future

Mutur Beltz has established itself as a benchmark of artisan innovation, revitalizing Carranzana wool and positioning it in sectors as diverse as fashion, sports, gastronomy or contemporary art. Through avant-garde collaborations, such as the creation of the technical fabric Artileshell for the Ternua brand or the initiatives together with the restaurant Mugaritz, Mutur Beltz has demonstrated that tradition and sustainability can merge in global design in a unique and successful way.

The Carranzana sheep's wool, far from being a forgotten resource, has come to life in projects that challenge the limits of the conventional. From the imposing 40-square-meter tapestry that decorated the stage of the international festival BBK Live 2024, to the balls of the Federation of Euskadi and the eyeglass frames of MaldeOjo Optika Atelier, each piece reflects Mutur Beltz's commitment to innovation and the preservation of local heritage.

This disruptive and sustainability-rooted approach has led Mutur Beltz to be recognized by institutions such as FADEMUR and the Ministry of Culture of Spain, who highlight its role in the revitalization of the rural environment through culture. Laurita Siles, co-creator of the project, has been invited to participate in important international forums on contemporary crafts, such as the Joan March Foundation in Mallorca and the Conference "Reinventing Crafts in a Contemporary Key" held in 2023 in Seville, thus consolidating Mutur Beltz as an example of innovation that connects the ancestral with the future.

On this path, Mutur Beltz has received important recognitions, including the National Entrepreneurship Award in Crafts (2024), the Elkarlan Award from the Basque Government (2024), the Materia Prima Award from Don Producto (2025), the Karrantza Naturala Award (2025) and has been selected as one of the three Spanish finalist projects in the Agricultural and Rural Inspiration Awards (ARIA) 2025, organized by the European Network of the CAP. This international recognition values our commitment to sustainability, social innovation and the socioeconomic fabric of the rural world.

Our story is, in short, a journey that continues in constant evolution, rooted in the land and in the wool, but with an eye on the future.