Invited Speakers

Born in Hendaye, he began to practice Basque improvised sung poetry at a very young age influenced by the atmosphere at his home. After attending Seaska School and Bayonne College, he studied journalism at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU). He regularly writes for the weekly publication Argia and the daily newspaper Berria, and often collaborates with Euskadi Irratia (a local radio station which broadcasts exclusively in the Basque language). He has participated in numerous events and activities including talks, critical reflections in public and preparation and transmission of messages for public events. He has also taught Basque improvised verse singing at the Bertso Eskola in Hendaye, has won numerous written verse competitions, has written lyrics to many songs and has participated in many projects designed to merge the world of Basque improvised verse singing with other disciplines such as dance, poetry and music, for example. He has won the Bertsolari Championship of Navarre four times, and the Xilaba Bertsulari Xapelketa Competition three times. He came second in the Basque Country’s Bertsolari Championship in 2009 and won in 2013.

Born on October 2nd in 1961 in Zarautz (Gipuzkoa). He currently lives in his home town, although he did spend a number of years in Vitoria-Gasteiz, the capital of both the province of Alava and the Autonomous Region of the Basque Country. He has a degree in Basque Philology. Nowadays, his is fully dedicated to creation works: not only he is well-known for being a Basque improvised verse singer (a bertsolari as they are known in the Basque language), but also for his writings and his television scripts. He has experimented with various different literary genres and has collaborated and collaborates often with the Basque press, writing opinion articles. He has brought out an album featuring a collection of his own verses and has written songs for other singers too. From the end of the 1980s onwards, and particularly during the 1990s, he has been one of the most respected and recognised names in the world of Basque improvised sung poetry. Andoni Egaña stands out as well for his work as a researcher, scholar and theoretician, and has made seminal contributions to the analysis and dissemination of the creative process involvedin Basque improvised poetry. He has participated in numerous experiences seeking to bring together the world of improvised verse singing and other forms of expression such as dance, accordion (or trikiti) playing, poetry and music, etc. He has been a Board member of the Association of Friends of Bertsolaritza for many years and was formerly head of its Research Department. He won the Bertsolari Championship of the Basque Country four times, in 1993, 1997, 2001 and 2005.

Maialen Lujanbio has a degree in Fine Arts, and her passion, the art of Basque improvised verse singing, is today her profession. She began practising bertsolaritza, as the art is known in the Basque language, at the Bertso Eskola (improvised Basque verseschool) and made her debut in the inter- verse schools contests.

In 2003 she won the Gipuzkoa Bertsolari Championship, in 2001, 2005 and 2013 came second in the Basque Country’s Bertsolari Championship and became champion in 2009 and 2017. In addition to Basque improvised verses she has also embarked on a number of other creative projects. From 2006 to 2011 she worked with Judith Montero and Xabier Erkizia to implement a project called Ornitorrinkus, an initiative which merges experimental music, sound and words and which gave rise to the book-album “Ornitorrinkus”. In 2011 she created the radioperformance “Txori Mugariak” with Xabier Erkizia, and in 2013 worked on the project “Hegi, Egia, Egiak”. She regularly collaborates with Euskadi Irratia (a local radio station which broadcasts exclusively in the Basque language) and gives talks in many towns, as well as at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), about the use of Basque in the workplace. She has collaborated with the weekly publication Argia and the daily newspapers Egunkaria and Berria, among others. Maialen Lujanbio lives in close contact with words,and in particular, with the world of bertsolaritza.

She received her Ph.D. in Physics from condensed matter at the UPV/EHU. Later she worked at the Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics and made a postdoctoral stay at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the United States. Currently, she develops her research on topological materials in the DIPC as Ikerbasque Researcher. In 2017 she won the L'Oreal- Unesco prize for Women in Science, and in 2018 she was part of the QUO 2018 science selection. In 2019, has received the Ikerbasque award for her outstanding contribution to the field of topological materials.

After a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the UPV/EHU, she moved to Yale University, where she worked for seven years on the design, structure and function of proteins. In 2011 she decided to return to Europe, and established her research group at IMDEA-Nanoscience, Madrid, to work on the design of proteins aimed at the generation of biofunctional nanostructures. In 2016, she joined CIC biomaGUNE as Ikerbasque Research Professor to lead the Biomolecular Nanotechnology group, for which she has one of the most prestigious research grants: an ERC-Consolidator Grant. In 2019, she received the Ikerbasque award in recognition for her leadership in the field of protein engineering.

Ana Galarraga Aiestaran is a scientific educator at Elhuyar. A graduate in veterinary science and food science and technology, she started working at Elhuyar in 2001 as a writer. She has published hundreds of reports and interviews in Elhuyar magazine and has edited the young people's science magazine Irrika. A regular contributor to numerous media (press, radio and television), she plays a part in organising, coordinating and presenting different live activities and projects.

She is the author of the Marikalanbre stories in Irriak magazine, published by the Irrien Lagunak project. She has also published a book with a selection of stories about the character and information sheets on the experiments: “Marikalanbre bizitzaren laborategian”. Taking science as the basis, in her stories she mixes curious, fun happenings with scientific experiments, with three main aims: to arouse curiosity, to show the fun side of science and to develop values such as equality, respect, effort and accepting mistakes, friendship, group work and so on.

Xurxo Mariño has a PhD in Biology from the University of Santiago de Compostela, and currently lectures in the Department of Medicine at the University of A Coruña. He is a member of the Neurocom research group at that same university, has published research papers in a number of specialised journals and has collaborated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He often participates in science dissemination activities, striving to foster greater interaction with the rest of humanities. He is the author of several books, including: “Os dados do reloxeiro”, “Po de estrelas” and “Neurociencia para Julia”; and contributes to the online platform Naukas. He organises “scientific cafétheatre events” and engages in other dissemination activities such as “Discurshows”, a hybrid format which is part talk and part performance. In 2011 he was awarded the Special Jury Prize at the “1st FECYT Competition of Scientific Communication”, and in 2014 won the Tesla Award for Dissemination. In 2017 he was awarded the Lois Peña Novo prize. In 2018 he received the award in the Dissemination category at the Gala do Libro Galego for his book “Tierra” (“Earth”), a work that also received an honourable mention in the Prismas 2018 awards.

Theatre studies at the Casa Hamlet academy in 2005, theatre improvisation with ImproMadrid in 2010 and interpretation with the audiovisual production company La Tuerka 27 in 2016.

Theatre actor for professional companies ESPELLO CÓNCAVO, TEATRO DA BUFARDA and VALACAR. The latter won the Max theatre award in 2013 for the accompanying work in the world of theatre. 

Comedian in the cast of the show LAS NOCHES DEL CLUB DE LA COMEDIA in the Rialto Theatre (Madrid) and Condal Theatre (Barcelona).  Script and performance of the comedy monologues DIÁLOGOS EN 3D (running for four seasons in the Villarroel Theatre, Barcelona) and GENTE TRISTE (two seasons in the Muñoz Seca Theatre, Madrid). Actor in the TVG programme MALO SERÁ! since. Screenwriter of the TVG programmes: A CASA DA CONEXA, TOURILANDIA and MALO SERÁ! Actor and director of the theatre improvisation company LOS DUGUIS IMPRO in 2013.