When: January, 2007

Where: Andoain

Project: Installation about Andoain and its representation forms in relation to EUSKADI Trademark work-line and produced to be a part of the exhibition “Label In&Out” in the Bastero Space in Andoain.

Working party: A project by Saioa Olmo commissioned by Elebi Taldea.

“Andoain 20140” was a project about Andoain and its representation forms. It was about what elements do allow us to refer to Andoain (its shield for instance, its ZIP code, its iconic architecture… ). It is also about the people in town, if they were being identified with them or they would propose others.

This installation used the shield of Andoain as a graphic sign that could serve as a starting point to reflect on identification aspects of Andoain. A video was made with interviews to people from Andoain in which the following questions were formulated:

  • Do you know what the shield of Andoain is? Do you identify it with you? Do you think it is a good representation of the town?
  • Do you think it’s known outside Andoain? Why does a shield serve for? What is its usage?
  • What would you point out of Andoain? Do you think that this information should be in his shield, anagram or logotype?
  • Do you think it is interesting to have a shield or logo for institutional topics and another logo for not so institutional uses… much friendlier?
  • Sometimes people take their T-shirts with the anagram of the Basque Country selection, the Nike logo, their music band’s name or the logo of the last Kilometroak or Araba Euskaraz… Would you put the shield of Andoain printed in your T-shirt? Yes, no, depending on how?
  • Are we in this moment surrounded by too many, symbols, brand logos, emblems? Do some compete with others or do they coexist in the same space of representation having no problems? Institutional labels and commercial labels, for instance. What attitudes do we strike?
  • Beyond the graphic symbols, that are like the smoke of the fire: What is there behind the shield of Andoain? Do people feel like being from “ of Andoain ”? Do people participate on making decisions on the town? Do they feel well in the town?

Playing with the symbols and their meanings:

In the installation different elements were proposed, with which:

  • To play to see yourself reflected inside the shield of Andoain.
  • To play wearing a pin shaped as the shield, in which the content changes as you move and thus you reflect your environment.
  • To play placing things you consider being representative of Andoain using removable images.

Other representations of Andoain:

There were 3 alternative town representations inside the shape of the shield: the territorial one given by Google Earth, another from people’s collectives in Andoain, and another one presenting elements mentioned in the interviews to people from town.

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