Bilbao (to Portugal); Algeciras (to Morocco via Strait of Gibralter)
October-November 1999
On the spur of the moment, we
decided to stop in
The shipbuilders of Bilbao made a
courageous decision in bring a major contemporary art museum to their backwater,
medium-sized industrial city. And they decided to do it without having much
knowledge of modern art. The site
chosen for the museum was an old shipyard down by the river. The site is jammed up against a rather ugly bridge on one side
and railroad tracks on the other. Three architects were asked to compete for the
job, which was awarded to American architect Frank Gehry. His surrealistic
architectural drawings for the museum were published in an art magazine several years before
it was built and they looked goofy to us at the time. But the completed building clearly is
one of the great works of architecture of the 20th century.
The titanium-clad structure is more fantastic than photographs can possibly show. We had fun trying to decide how to describe this museum to someone who hadn't seen it: a silver-quilted ship, a leaping scaly fish, a demented teapot, an opening tulip bud, a warped catamaran hull or the reflection of metal cylinders in a carnival mirror! In short, it looks as if a highly talented, giant sculptor had created it while very drunk. We were elated when we first saw it and even more excited as we inspected it inside, outside and from across the river. We'd take three or four steps and look at it again: new angle, new shape.
Gehry won the competition not only for the sheer audacity of his design, but for the way in which he integrated it with the existing site. He created a tower to embrace the bridge - making the museum and bridge appear to be a single unit. From across the river, it appears that cars are speeding across the bridge and dropping right into the museum! Gehry also created a reflecting pool to make it seem as if the whole building were a silver ship floating on the river. (Did we mention that we liked the building?)
Before taking an
English-language tour of the museum, Lou decided to stretch his back to prevent muscle spasms; he does
this several times a day when traveling with a backpack. He went
discreetly behind a pillar in the lobby, dropped to the ground and began
arching upward as though trying to do push-ups. This immediately drew the
attention of museum guards, admission takers and cloakroom
attendants. Several people began to run toward him with worried looks on their faces,
assuming he was having a medical crisis. Joan had to stand next
to him for the next few minutes - smiling broadly to indicate he was fine.
ART
Pipilotti Rist of
A sculpture by a young Chinese
artist named Cai Guo Qiang was also exciting. His "Cry Dragon/Cry Wolf:
The Ark of Genghis Khan" (1996) is hung from the ceiling. 3/4 of it is
composed of traditional Chinese rafts made of logs supported by inflated sheep
skins, attached to three very noisy
In the galleries showcasing art
from the museum's permanent collection were a group of paintings relating directly
to the building's architecture. The works of Picasso, Leger, Kandinsky, Miro
and others seemed to "predict" Gehry's design. Indeed, Gehry was
trained as a sculptor, and the entire building seems more like a giant
sculpture than a building. He used an aeronautical computer program to design
it, as there was no architectural program available to do what he wanted. It
was(From the awful sound of this sculpture, Toyota mechanics were
needed!) a leap into the unknown. Did we mention that we liked the building?
BEYOND
THE MUSEUM
Bilbao itself is a delight. We
expected to find a jewel of a museum in a dismal, industrial setting. Instead,
we found a city sparkling both commercially and esthetically. Although a
half-million visitors had been predicted for the museum's first year, well over
a million people came - adding to the wealth and vitality of the town. Its
gleaming new metro system is a smaller version of the fine one in Washington,
D.C. Its major theater is undergoing renovation, a new opera house has just
opened. There are handsome promenades on both sides of the river, joined by
a stunning footbridge. Bilbao now belongs to the list of must-see stops on
a European grand tour.
The Iturrienea Ostatu is a
charming two-star pension in the old quarter of the city and was a splurge for
us. (We usually stay at hostels and no-star hotels or we wouldn't be able to
travel for months at a time.) Life-size papier mache sheep with quizzical
expressions greeted us at the door. The lobby is homelike, decorated in a
combination of Spanish country and wry contemporary. The woman at the hotel
desk spoke good English and shared Basque history with us. The plain, middle
aged woman who served us breakfast turned out to be the painter of some
wonderful postmodern paintings sprinkled amongst the gingham and wrought iron.
Spanish food is a treat. We
especially enjoyed grazing on tapas - tidbits of food offered at bars. You help
yourself, keeping track of how many dishes you eat and tell the waiter at the
end what you had. A smallish glass of VERY good Spanish rioja (red wine)
was only $1.25. For dinner, we each had two glasses of wine and shared six
tapas for a total bill of $15. The tapas included smoked salmon on toast, tiny
frittatas of egg, spinach and wild mushrooms, and paper-thin slices of
air-cured ham.
We had another adventure in independent travel when we tried to get train tickets from Bilbao to Porto, Portugal. We went to a window at the ticket counter, but found the attendant spoke NO English - matching the amount of our Spanish. Lou used the "American School of Linguistics Approach" - if you speak slowly enough and loudly enough, eventually foreigners will discover that they DO speak English after all! (Alas, this approach almost never works.) In the end, it took six counter attendants, several schedule books and the three young Spanish travelers behind us - who fortunately spoke English - to make train reservations to PORTUGAL
DETAILS, DETAILS, DETAILS
Guggenheim Museum: 10 a.m. to
8 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday; closed Monday. Ph: 94 435 90 00
(1999 Prices)
Iturrienea Ostatua Hotel:
$66/double (low season) with bathroom and a breakfast of croissants, good coffee, orange juice, pears, walnuts and cheese.
This hotel is booked for months in advance in high season. Santa Maria Kalea,
14, Bilbao. Ph: 94 416 15 00; Fax: 94 415 89 29
Lou and Joan Rose joanandlou@ramblingroses.net