OSCAR GOGORZA
Sunday December 7 – 16:00 Euskalduna Bilbao
What does a mountaineer aspire to? Montaña travels back in time to dissect the origins of a kind of conquering ambition and dreams in the form of challenges: from the pioneers on Mont Blanc to the vanguard of alpine style in the Himalayas; from Saussure's scientific curiosity to Steve House's search for ethical and aesthetic perfection; the supposed 'madness' of the 'soloists' Paul Preuss and Alex Honnold with a century between them; the “eight-thousanders”, once synonymous with epic feats and difficulty, are now a destination for tourists; and women such as Lynn Hill and Wanda Rutkiewicz continue to exemplify the bumpy road to equality in a vertical world riddled with contradictions and even cheats doped up on lies. Each generation improves on the previous one in terms of speed, training and new tools. But death, and the game of escaping it, remains to be the common thread that tarnishes the legitimate desire to push oneself to the limit in order to conquer... the useless?
