Biography

iF (Yves Matxikote Jorajuria, 1977), 3rd son of a modest family, was born and raised in Uztaritze, a town in the Basque Country. He is of the first generation for which the transmission of Basque is broken.

After a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a validated first year at the Bordeaux School of Fine Arts, he must abandon his artistic career to reorient himself towards a more pragmatic profession (On the graphic chain).

Between 1996 and 1999, he learned Basque to be able to assume his cultural identity and, since 1998, he has been active for the defense of linguistic, civil and political rights, as well as for the recognition of Euskal Herria.

In 2001, he was arrested for refusing to perform French military service.

At the beginning of 2000 the "witch hunt" carried out in the Basque Country by the Spanish State intensifies. Illegalisations are on the rise: research newspapers, newspapers (including the only one in Basque), radio stations, networks teaching Basque to adults, political parties and youth movements. At the same time, waves of arrests come. iF, like dozens of other activists, was under a European arrest warrant from 2002 to 2018 due to his political commitment.

In 2003, a symbolic pacifist action in the streets of Baiona aimed at denouncing the absurdity of these European arrest warrants, sentenced him to a heavy fine synonymous with ruin or a month and a half in prison. He chooses the prison.

That same year, he finally frees himself sexually and assumes his homosexuality.

In 2004, he participated in founding and editing a weekly for young people in which he was, among other things and until 2006, responsible for an illustrated column on sexuality. In 2005 a compilation book was published.

In 2009, he and his partner acquired a more spacious home that allowed him to fully invest in the visual arts. He then begins a job that unites his experience, his demands, and his concerns. It was also at this time that his partner was handed over to the Spanish police and made a political prisoner, until 2015.

Since 2010 he has exhibited in public and private exhibition spaces in the Basque Country (Baiona, Eibar, Zumarraga, Tolosa, Elgoibar, etc.) and has participated in various exhibitions in the French State (Hivernales, Art en vrac, etc.).

In 2019, he opened tTok, an art gallery located in Uztaritze, to showcase his work and that of other professional artists and to help spread the art outside of large urban centers.

In 2020 he launched the Zapart's foundation, a network for the dissemination and promotion of the work of artists in all Basque territories, for the recognition of artist status.

In 2021 he exhibited his first retrospective (Adar lotuak 2009-2021) at the Aranburu Palace in Tolosa (Gipuzkoa, Basque Country).

* http://www.ikas.eus/spip.php?page=pmb_notice&id_notice=2643&lang=fr