Getting out for a run to see a city wake up has always been one of my favourite things to do – it was the number one goal throughout my recovery. Heading out in the cool morning air for a short run/walk along the river in Bilbao was enough… having the space around the iconic Guggenheim Museum to ourselves was a bonus!
It’s a truly magnificent building – a perfect blend of art and architecture. Designed by Frank Gehry under the brief to be ‘daring and innovative’ it has sat elegantly in the landscape since 1997, proving that good design and style can be timeless. The 33,000 titanium plates that clad the building reflect the light beautifully, and I can imagine that no two visits are ever quite the same. It’s an art museum where you could happily spend as much time outside as in.
Some of the sculptures on the outside are equally iconic. Jeff Koons ‘Puppy’ is an enormous West Highland Terrier carpeted in flowers. Tiny birds were chirping as they darted in an out of the flowers, making it an engaging, living piece of art. It’s designed to bring wonder and joy… it achieved it, as the cutest doggo I’ve ever seen on a run!
A visit to the Guggenheim Museum was our first priority for Bilbao. The Atrium is the heart of the building, with curved walls and glass curtains that fill the space with light and connect the inside with the outside. The three levels of the building are connected with curved walkways and staircases which continually shift your perspectives and make you feel part of the space.
The gallery spaces and collection fit seamlessly within the space. Richard Serra’s work ‘A Matter of Time’ consists of 8 enormous structures of weathering steel curved and arranged into ellipses and spirals that create a sense of width and narrowing as you walk through them. Some are almost dizzying as your brain plays tricks with the illusions and direction.
Rising Sea by El Anatsui is another large scale sculpture, this time made from discarded lids of alcohol bottles, flattened, twisted and held together with copper wire. The glimmering silver sky makes way for waves that consume the skyline at the base on a scale that reflects the enormity of climate change.
Other sculptures and artworks may be small, and are equally impactful. Tom Sachs Tiffany Gift Meal was one of a series that took luxury brands and placed them in the context of more commonplace icons to challenge consumer culture and the notions of authenticity and value. Bob-Tail by Jeff Koons (creator of The Puppy outside) is a timber fluffy dog, another example of an everyday item turned into art.
Infinity Mirrored Room – A Wish for Human Happiness Calling from Beyond the Universe is an immersive experience by Yayoi Kusama. It was created in 2020, with Yayoi already in her 90s… there are no boundaries!
Arts of the Earth is another current exhibition that has brought the outside in. It’s not often you walk through a museum to find live trees, a room full of soil! It fits well with Yoko Ono’s Wish Tree for Bilbao, and the Museum’s ongoing commitment to sustainability through the installation of solar panels and environmentally conscious materials.
The final exhibition that caught us was Ruth Asawa: Retrospective. The overarching statement that ‘An artist is an ordinary person who can take ordinary things and make them special’ both sums up and underestimates her work. Over 60 years as an artist, educator and advocate, Ruth created tied wire, paperfolds, paintings, drawings and prints. She’s described as ‘challenging abstraction and representation, figure and ground, and negative and positive space’. The use of light, shadow, and three dimensional space also demonstrated the value of curation as art.
To top it off, the Guggenheim visitor feedback system was a great reflection of doing things a little differently. Visitors are invited to share their feelings on key artworks and experiences by selecting the emotions they evoked. Unsurprisingly, The Puppy evoked Joy, Fascination and Amusement 🙂
If I was to sum up the Guggenheim in one word, it would be ‘Perspectives’. This museum has captured time, space, light, shadow, lines, curves, expanse, detail, luxury and simplicity in so many different ways. It’s a place that steps you out of the everyday and reminds you how different things can be when you take a different view. So glad we’ve been able to visit.
We spent the rest of the day walking the streets of Bilbao, fascinated by the volume of tourists. For some reason it seems to be a mecca for Hens and Bucks nights, and every bar and street is packed with big groups ready for a bigger night. Feels like quite a contrast to the elegance of the Guggenheim 🙂
Love M & A x
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