A Popular Party candidate in Spain plagiarizes the image of the Baroque Museum of Puebla for a project in his city

The proposals intensify the weeks before an electoral call, and Spain was called to vote this Sunday in the local and regional elections in almost the entire territory. Among the promises made by the Popular Party candidate for deputy general in Álava, province of the Basque Country, was the construction of a Science Park Planetary Museum in the capital, Vitoria. The president of the conservatives, Iñaki Oyarzabal, announced the measure on May 9 with a representation of the supposed future complex, but in reality it was a montage made from a photograph of the International Museum of the Baroque of Puebla, in central Mexico, designed by the renowned Japanese Pritzker Toyo Ito.

In the manipulated image you can see the buildings that make up the Puebla art gallery, partially painted green on some of its facades. The structure is projected in mirror with respect to the original, on a green extension of Salburua, the residential area where the location of the new museum was planned. The Tecnológico de Monterrey, attached to the Puebla complex, also appears in the illustration disseminated by the party, in the same arrangement as in the original.

The first to notice the assembly was the plastic artist Jesús Jáuregui, who has worked on numerous occasions in Mexico and recognized the museum in the image. "I saw it by chance and I contacted Toyo Ito's office in Barcelona," he explains to EL PAÍS in an exchange on WhatsApp.

The supervisor of the project for Mexico of the Japanese house, Takayuki Ohara Martínez, has expressed his discomfort on his LinkedIn profile. "It is outrageous that the PP of Álava uses the image of a project of ours to promote its Planetarium Museum in Salburua," he denounced. "Because it's built in Mexico, nobody knows. Total, it is from a certain Toyo Ito, who will know him ...", he has ironized. Ohara explained to this newspaper that they have already sent a written complaint "to remove any images related to the museum and a declaration of misuse." They have not yet received a response and are willing to wait a few days before taking legal action, which they are already consulting with their lawyers. "We are not very happy," he acknowledged.

The PP candidate in Álava, Iñaki Oyarzabal, presents the museum project. People's Party

The party has alleged that it obtained the photograph from a bank of free images and that "at all times" they explained that "it was a simulated recreation" because in reality they proposed an international contest of ideas, according to the local newspaper Gasteiz today. However, this is not reflected in any point of the note published on the training website. On the contrary, the conservatives indicate in it that "for the design of the ambitious installation has taken into account the necessary provision of a conference room that will act as a claim of professionals and companies. Also for the promotion of meetings or thematic forums". It follows from these words that they conclude the design, and the information note includes the image twice without specifying the origin. This newspaper has contacted the organization, but has not yet received a response.

The complex designed for Puebla by the Japanese architect opened its doors in 2016, three years after he won the prestigious Pritzker Prize, the highest recognition in architecture. Also in Spain you can find traces of his designs in the controversial Hermitage in Barcelona.

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