In the Navarre town of Arteta, in the valley of Ollo, is the Ethnographic Museum created by the sculptor Joxe Ulibarrena Arellano. In the 17th century Fantikorena house we will find over 10,700 pieces in this “empirical encyclopedia”, according to the creator. Fragments of life from prehistory to the early 20th century. Ulibarrena is passionate about them and about the history of our Basque ancestors. She loves to scrutinize in her own way what's behind the names of words, expressions and places. The rigidity of the vocabulary is not a problem for him. It creates words for concrete concepts, from within, embroidered, like its sculptures.

It is advisable to leave the dams and the watch parked by the car. We delve into an environment of extraordinary knowledge. We won't see design panels, but there are many handwritten notes at the ends of the papers. From time to time we will have the feeling of dizziness: ploughing, locks, dresses, furniture, layas, cars, tombstones, brushes, coins, tools of all kinds, books, toys… and the old genius of Ulibarrena will give us a thousand non-stop explanations from one subject to another. An experience that will certainly not leave anyone indifferent.

Over 10,700 pieces in this museum. Why do you collect them?

Knowing whether or not our ancestors had knowledge. Some say they were behind, but I don't see it that way. This table, for example, could not do that today, because there are no longer such large trees to start with. The table board is 89 cm wide. Also very important is the way wood works: the moon, the sun, if it is summer or winter... they influence. Everything is important and the result of that wisdom is terrible. And I ask: What is our party? Our ethnicity? We have a lot to learn. What do they mean by that, for example, when they say the vascones? Some people think that I am not basco either, because I belong to the Ribera de Navarra. And there, most of the surnames are in Basque. I ask you what your name is, what your mother's name is. If you want to have a mother later, but here's what's out there. Anyway, I'm not from the forest, I'm from the Basque.

What's the difference?

The basques are around the king of Spain, as they were before around Franco. For example, the Ibarra, Sota and Aznar bilbaínos. Today, they are still around power, while the Basques are in jail or close to it. Vasco, vasconum, Vasconia… all that is Latin. The Basque, the Basque, the Basque… no.

I once asked Yolanda Barcina whether he knew what his last name meant. I said: Bar and Tzina: Small night. And like that, how many names are of Basque origin! In the Mediterranean area Gandía, Xabia, Extremadura Azuaga, Cadizen Arazena Mendi Sierra… When we say Andalusia, what are we saying with this word? : Large and long valley.

And Nabarra. I once told Corella (Miguel Sanz): “Don’t tell me that I have a great fondness for the things of the Basques, because you too have a Basque origin. Being so Navarro, do you know what the word Nabarra means? You do not even know that this is Basque. It comes from the naba word and means a flat and wide field. And you don't even know your mother's name. You are your mother’s son, nothing else, but if you want another mother that’s something else.” I told him another important thing: “In your town 93.” He told me how I think about these things, but how not! I was 11 years old when my father was killed in our house and when I saw how in the Castle Liver of Pamplona three young men, two boys and one girl were shot. They fell on the ground. Only those who do not know do so. Those who don't know what they do. And then Sanz said to me, “Well, you see that you are a poet,” and I said, “it can be, and you see, how many poets have you killed?”

To make him quiet?

Only by ignorance, not by concealment, because if you don't speak, another will. I have seen and lived that, if not, how would I know? Experience taught me. And the same is true of the trade. Some people tell me I'm not modern. How do you want me to be modern with my age? I say this jokingly. In any case, I believe that the things that are done at the moment are modern, nothing more. What I'm not is a modernist. I want to remain who I am, see what great teachers have done and keep learning.

What is modern?

Do you know what is abstract? What you can't explain, and that's what you do, because you don't know anything else. This house, for example, is over 300 years old, has eight columns from the bottom up and has no walls. Cubists did the same, but modern architects say that cubism was a thing of the early 20th century.

How do you define yourself?

It's very simple. Sculptor and nothing else. I have a great hobby, and I always want to remain humbly and standing with that.

Why do you make sculptures?

Because I have a great interest in expressing something, with specific rhythms and proportions. Using something that's really plastic. I want to make profiles that have an expression.

What are you working on now?

Now I'm doing the Sarasate figure in harizki. I have a lot of excitement, because Sarasate was very rare. He once arrived in Pamplona, the authorities went to get her to the train station with a horse carriage, but he told them that he would go on foot with all the people who had come to receive her. What a smart and dynamic way to say no to the authorities! Thank you, but not. In addition, I have prepared the sketch of a sculpture for the ikastola of Tafalla and am also writing memories and reflections about the Civil War.

You’ve made three sculptures for the Nafarroa Oinez that hosts the ikastola of Tafalla this year and Artea Oinez 11 will pay you tribute in October. Satisfied?

What is being done about Oinez seems to me to be very good, but I am another in this initiative, nothing more. They had to do it to everybody. The key to understanding what we are, how we are, is knowing what our ancestors did. I want children and young people today to be curious. Look at these things and learn what our ancestors have done.

The Museum is called the Ethnographic Museum of the Kingdom of Pamplona and is the institution that promotes it, the Pedro Mariscal Foundation of Navarra. Why?

Pedro de Nabarra, Marshal of the Kingdom of Navarre in the conquest, in the struggle against the Castilian army. The Navarre marshal was arrested in 1518 and taken to Simancas. There they stayed for four years without seeing anyone and barely eating until it appeared dead. They wanted him to swear by the stranger Carlos V, but he didn't give up. He's highly appreciated for all he taught his contemporaries. That inner force that he himself showed, the one that gives faith, is very important. We have a lot of external energy, but not internal energy.

This same security and safety had been shown when my late mother called me for military service. I went to Burgos. My mother came with me and told them that I would not do the service because I had to go to study in Paris with a scholarship from the Council. The military said that the country was before everything else and the mother replied that I was her son and that no one had the strength to say otherwise. The military did nothing. He said he was happy to have known us and to be able to walk well.

She studied Euskera in Venezuela.

I started there with José Estornés Lasa. He once told me: “As you have such a fondness for Basque things, why don’t you learn Basque?” I replied, “because I don’t have teachers.” “You don’t want to teach me?” he said “yes, OK,” and so we started. We met every day to do the lesson. I don't know much about Euskera, but I see some very clear things. Our ancestors had some expressions that we shouldn't lose today. For example, a lot of “culture” is now being used and we have another word: “knowledge”.

In Euskera when someone dies, the words "death" and "corpse" are used. The person cools down. He's died. But to learn all that, you have to listen carefully to what interesting things our baserritars say. What expressions are so vivid, expressive and precise!