• Title: Wall Drawing 2025.Merida
• Art and Project: Olabe Basogain
• Technique: Fabric Printing
• Size:  3 m x 1.5m
• Date: March 2025
• Place: First Floor Hall - Vitoria-Gasteiz School of Engineering

"Wall Drawing 2025.Merida" is a large-scale graphic installation developed from a geometric pattern based on the Bilbao tile. This foundational structure consists of 13 segments—one central circle, four peripheral circles, and eight radial sectors—enabling endless formal and chromatic variations.

The work consists of 2,048 graphic tiles arranged in a 32 by 64 grid. Each tile features a variation of the base pattern, and together they are organized to form larger visual structures, such as the trees that make up the forest. These shapes emerge from the systematic repetition and placement of the motif, resulting in a collective image where each tree is built from multiple graphic units, not a single tile.

Digitally printed on fabric, the piece measures 3 meters wide by 1.5 meters high, and is designed to be viewed from both sides. To achieve this, the image is printed across 6 linear meters of fabric, which is folded and stretched like a vertical banner. It hangs next to a large window in the main hall of the School of Engineering at Vitoria-Gasteiz, making it visible both from inside and outside the building.

The installation is constantly affected by natural light—sun, clouds, shadows, reflections—as well as artificial lighting at night. These shifting conditions turn the piece into a dynamic, ever-changing element that interacts with its architectural and atmospheric setting.

Thanks to the lightness of the textile support and a straightforward mounting system, the piece can be installed in different parts of the hall, easily removed or repositioned, and adapted to the spatial needs of its environment. Its mobile nature reinforces its identity as a living, flexible work, capable of inhabiting the building in multiple ways. Moreover, the fabric responds subtly to its physical surroundings: it vibrates with air currents, ripples with the movement of people, and acquires an organic, ever-changing quality that enhances its dialogue with the architecture and the everyday flow of the space.

Aesthetically, the work blends mathematical structure with emotional resonance. The forest it portrays is not a literal one, but rather abstract and symbolic, where bold colors (reds, greens, yellows, blues) evoke vitality, rhythm, and life. Repetition doesn’t produce monotony here, but rather variation within order, allowing for multiple layers of interpretation: from afar, a coherent composition; up close, a narrative mosaic.

Wall Drawing 2025.Napoli continues the conceptual and minimalist approach characteristic of Olabe Basogain’s work, in visual dialogue with artists such as Sol LeWitt, Julian Opie, Michael Craig-Martin, and Daniel Buren. Through a concise visual language and formal clarity, the piece becomes an autonomous and poetic system of signs.

This artwork is part of a larger series and has a companion piece, Wall Drawing 2025.Napoli, made using the same technique and structure, but featuring a different arrangement of trees with other color palette. While Merida offers calm and contemplation, Napoli expresses energy and intensity. Together, they form an emotional diptych—a visual exploration of inner landscapes.

This project was carried out within the framework of the Collaborative STEAM Art for Open Educational Spaces program, supported by the University Outreach Grant from the Vice-Rectorate of the Álava Campus. The activity invites participants to design and create cultural banners inspired by our environment and identity, through collaborative processes, shared creativity, and the application of STEAM techniques to artistic creation. Thus, the work is not only a visual outcome but also part of a collective process of exploration, reflection, and creation.