Nicolás Uriburu
©image: M HKA
1937 - 2016
Lives in Maldonado (UY), died in Buenos Aires (AR), born in Buenos Aires (AR), lives in Paris (FR).
In the late 1960s, Nicolás Uriburu started to question his own practice and its impact on society. Trained as an architect and celebrated as a painter, he expanded his canvas to include rivers and fountains, creating an awareness of the real. He began to look critically at societies’ relationships with nature, principally their urban waterways, and became best known for his use of a harmless microbiological colouring agent that turns an intense shade of green when released into bodies of water. The urgency of his practice was closely related to the fact that he grew up beside the Riachuelo River in Buenos Aires, still one of the ten most polluted places in the world. In total, Uriburu made more than twenty colourings worldwide over thirty years, starting in 1968 as an uninvited guest at the Venice Biennale, where he coloured the Canal Grande. In 1981, Uriburu collaborated with Joseph Beuys to colour the Rhine and the following year, they planted 7000 oaks in Kassel for Documenta 8. In the 1990s, Uriburu began collaborating with Greenpeace.
Uriburu carried out two colouring projects in Antwerp in the 1970s. In 1972, on the occasion of his show at Spectrum Gallery, he took on the fountain in front of the office building housing the Municipal Water Service, and in 1974 he coloured the Bonaparte Dock of Antwerp’s old harbour at the invitation of M HKA’s predecessor, the ICC (International Cultural Centre).
>Nicolás Uriburu, The Rebelión, Antagonism between Nature and Civilization (Green series), Paris, 1973, 1973.Painting, reproductie (origineel: olieverf op doek), 190 x 180 cm.
>Nicolás Uriburu, Portfolio (Manifesto), 1973.Print, zeefdruk op papier , 6 x (76.2 x 56.5 cm).
>Nicolás Uriburu, Dolphin-triptic of freedom-Paris, 1974.Painting, olieverf op hout , 80 x 130 cm.
>Nicolás Uriburu, Coloration du port d’Anvers, dock Napoleon, 25 november 1974 , 1974.Intervention, kleurenfoto (ingelijst), 101 x 75 cm.
>Nicolás Uriburu, Uriburu kleuringen 1968-1974, 1974.Book, ink, paper, 28.8 x 21.7 cm, 51 p., language : Dutch, French, English, publisher : ICC/Internationaal Cultureel Centrum, Antwerpen.
>Nicolás Uriburu, Project Coloration Bonaparte Dock Antwerp, 1974.Intervention, dia positives.
>Nicolás Uriburu, Project coloration Trafalgar Square Fountains, 1974.Collage, b/w photograph, pencil, felt-tip pen, ink, plexi, frame, 83 x 107 cm.
>Nicolás Uriburu, Joseph Beuys, Rhein Water Poluted (sic), 1981.Object, fles met gekleurd rijnwater , 28 x ⌀ 7.5 cm.
>Nicolás Uriburu, Joseph Beuys, 7000 eiken (Beuys & Uriburu), 1982.Miscellaneum, papier, 10,5 x 14,9 cm.
>Nicolás Uriburu, Basta de contaminar (Stop Polluting), 1999.Painting, synthetisch email op doek , 500 x 1500 cm.
>Nicolás Uriburu, Untitled (Apple and hand).Film, zeefdruk op doek, 73 x 60 cm .
Exhibitions & Ensembles
> Exhibition: AMBERES – Roberto Bolaño’s Antwerp. 07 June 2019 - 15 September 2019.
> Exhibition: EXTRA MUROS: Visite Bornem - Gedeelde Ruimte. 03 May 2014 - 25 May 2014.
> Exhibition: Museum in Motion. 16 September 2022 - 08 January 2023.
> Exhibition: Museum in Motion - Nicolas Uriburu. 16 September 2022 - 08 January 2023.
> Exhibition: The Collection. 28 April 2017 - 31 December 2021.
> Exhibition: The collection XXXIII – The Collection as a Character. 07 June 2013 - 22 September 2013.
> Exhibition: The Lives of Animals. 08 June 2024 - 22 September 2024.
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> Ensemble: Colour and Questions for Antwerp.
> Ensemble: ICC POSTER ARCHIVE.
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> Ensemble: ICC_Publications.
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> Ensemble: M HKA_DEFAULT_WORKS.
> Ensemble: NUCLEUS.
> Ensemble: Permanent Collection / Fluxus.
> Ensemble: Stichting Gordon Matta-Clark.