Philip Aguirre y Otegui

Philip Aguirre y Otegui (born 1961 in Schoten) is a Belgian artist who mainly works as a sculptor and painter. His work usually centers around migration and refugees, water, and the shelter of architecture.
His father Juan Martin Aguirre originally came from Las Arenas, in Spanish Basque Country, but moved as a child to Antwerp, Belgium in 1936, when the Spanish Civil War started. His mother's family suffered under the German occupation and the persecution of Jews in Belgium during the second World War. Aguirre studied in Antwerp and now lives in Borgerhout.
In 2017 he won the International Award for Public Art for his 2010 installation "Théatre Source" in Douala, Cameroon. In 2015 a 45-minute documentary with a voice-over by Jan Decleir, about the making of this work was created by cineast Koen Van den Bril. It showed how a muddy well was transformed in 9 months time into a meeting place for a village. Art publisher Ludion also made a book about the installation.
His work is influenced by Frans Masereel (for the humanistic vision and the effort to bring art to the people), the sculptors Constantin Brancusi and Alberto Giacometti, photographer Manuel Alvarez Bravo, and contemporary Belgian artist Francis Alÿs.
He is a nephew of TV presenter Phara de Aguirre.