You've put a spectacular door that draws your attention. It's the back of your house, isn't it?

Juanjo (J. ): This land was at the back of our house. Buying a land, that's been our illusion ever since, to have a garden attached to the house. In the end we managed to buy it last year. So we've extended the terrace and we've gone directly from the kitchen to the garden, and from the ground up we've also made a live exit. We wanted to make a nice closing to round the works. We wanted to put a special door with sliding and pedestrian doors to be able to access the cars, which at the same time would be nice, made with pleasure, as it is located in the heart of the town, next to the bar.

Were you clear that there was going to be Gernika at your door?

Shellfish (M): What we were clear about is that we wanted the door out of forge, out of iron; the rest of us weren't clear about it. One day Juanjo said: “What if we put Gernika?” we looked at the two and as if something clicked on us, we saw it clear. So we decided to put the Gernika, and we didn't give it any more spin.

Who did that forging Gernika?

J.: I work in Araia, in an oxycut company. We cut pieces of iron or forging, as customers ask us. I work at the office as a commercial, but at the time I also worked at the technical office, drawing. When we decided to do Gernika, I decided to do the work at the factory. I did Gernika's drawing, with the help of my colleague Alberto, who is currently working at the technical office. I made the drawings by hand.

By hand? Are machines and computers currently not scanning the image and cutting it directly into the iron piece?

J.: You can put the picture of the painting by computer, raw, but what you have to cut, all those silhouettes that you want to cut, you have to draw by hand. You have to go drawing lines, radios, arches… in the program. These images, that is, the drawing you've made, will be taken by the cutting program, passed to the machine, and it will be the machine itself that makes the cut in the piece of iron. Put another way: you have a whole veneer of veneer or forging, and you cut the pieces to draw. You must mark the parts that you must cut.

Did you ask him a lot of time to make the drawing?

J.: When making the drawings you can leave your eyes on the screen, as you have to be very close to the screen, as they are very small lines. Come and stay, come and stay... You can't do the work successively because it's very difficult. You have to do a little and leave it, then work for a while… I don’t know how long it took me. The piece was cut in the direction of Ekain, with a lot of mime. The machine took about 2 hours, and for these kinds of machines, that's a long time.

Then the piece was mounted on the door, right?

M.: Yes. All the door mounting has been thought and done by Ciordio Manuel Kasas. A door with guide, a pedestrian door, chapas nearby, recessed Gernika… He has done a great job, gladly. We had doubts as to whether to put something behind Gernika, but in the end we did not put it on it, because we believe that the picture looks good and that it differs quite a bit.

Did the factory mates like how Gernika has stayed?

J.: Yes. My colleagues told me that I had mounted the door to send pictures immediately, to see how the work stopped. Everyone involved in the process was very pleased.

What about the citizens? What do people tell you?

M.:We didn’t tell anyone what the door would look like, and when Manuel put it in summer, everyone was astonished. Now there is not much movement in the village for the pandemic, but the people who come to the bar stay up to our door, looking. We've realized that a lot of them take pictures. It looks like people like it, too. You have also called us… (ja, ja).

Because Gernika has something.

M.: Yes, Gernika is special. It has its history, its charm, its symbolism… It is special for many things. Gernika comes to you, pulls you up, looks at you… Gernika, we had no question.

Has anyone asked you who opened the door?

J.: Yes, we've been told they're going to copy the door (ha, ha). For us, no problem.

Are you happy with the work?

M.: Very happy. It's been very nice. It is now necessary to carry out the closures in order to delimit the garden. Manuel is doing it, and that will also be very good.