Following an artistic apprenticeship copying classical works at the San Telmo Museum in San Sebastian, he moved to Paris where he lived from 1954 to 1961 and where he came into contact with the latest avant-garde artistic movements. At the time, the informalist movement was at its height and it had a great impact on Sistiaga. As a painter and cinematographer, he identifies with the aesthetic of action painting or gestual art. Between 1963 and 1968 he directed free-expression workshops for children in Donostia and Elorrio, using the Freinet method of free expression. In 1965, together with Amable Arias and Jorge Orteiza, he was one of the promoters of the avant-garde collective of artists GAUR. The collective also included Eduardo Chillida, Nestor Basterrechea, Jose Luis Zumeta, Remigio Mendiburu y Rafael Ruiz Balerdi and was formed with the intention of stimulating a Basque School. In 1968 he made his first film painted directly onto celluloid, De la luna a Euskadi. This short film would represent the first version of the full length experimental film...ere erera baleibu izik subua aruaren... Following this experience, Sistiaga continued his pictorial trajectory and in 1988-89 made another experimental film entitled Impresiones en la alta atmósfera. His works, both pictorial and cinematographic, have been shown in numerous international exhibitions and film festivals (London, New York, Paris, Brussels, Venice etc.)
Festival Internacional de Cine de Huesca
