To say that the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao is “unique” does not begin to tell how unique it is! I don’t believe that in recent history there is a building that has as much as this museum defined the very notion on modern architecture – there are many new remarkable constructions that have occurred in my life time and that I have experienced – the twin towers in KL or the Jin Mao building in Shanghai, to name a few just in Asia – but nothing that amounts to this structure! Or that has changed so much the nature and perception of a city. Bilbao is on the “world’s map” today because of the Guggenheim Museum there – there is no question about this, and the people of Bilbao will be the first ones to admit it and to tell you!
It is a marvel! Its sculpture-like appearance. Its curves; its material – that titanium exterior shell, glistening in the gold reflections of the morning or evening sun, or even under a grey sky. Its size, its location that singles it out by the river! And the stunning cathedral-like interior atrium, full of light, where you can begin to grasp the extent of this composition. Again the materials and the shapes: glass, metal and sandstone, curved and shaped to espouse the precise lines that the imagination of the architect, Canadian Frank Gehry, produced.
A triumph of engineering as well! Allowed first by the capacity of modern electronics to transcribe the most unconventional non-linear design into objects that can be actually built! Lots of admiration for Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the Chicago-based architecture firm responsible for the project (they are the ones also responsible for the Bank of America building in San Francisco where I was first exposed to their work; known more remarkably for the Jin Mao in Shanghai – and perhaps less remarkably, some would say, for the recent American Embassy in Ottawa!)
The history itself of the museum is remarkable. How it came about to be built in Bilbao in the first place – I asked a city councilor. Born of a confluence: the Guggenheim Foundation looking to expand in Europe, Bilbao wanting to build a museum as part of its city rejuvenation trust. Actually, Gehry did not only win the eventual competition to build the museum, but he was part of the initial decision on the location – by the river – of the museum in the early 90’s, when the Foundation brought him in Bilbao to advise the Basque authorities as to what and where to build – they had originally another site in mind. So I guess he deserved to win the competition!
I spent a lovely end-of-the-afternoon visit at the Museum, as part of an “official” tour organized by our hosts – the works of Henri Rousseau and Anish Kapoor to be seen as temporary exhibitions. I came back in the morning before I left Bilbao to spend time around the museum, and absorb the perspectives that afford the adjacent bridge “de la Salve” and the Nervion River.
(Note to myself: next time in Seattle, go and see the “Experience Music Project”, an even more extravagant realization by Frank Gehry, in celebration of Jimi Hendrix and rock ‘n’ roll music culture in the United States!)
Bilbao, June 11, 2010
