Regional Renaissance: eight years after the opening of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, the art scene in the Basque Country is thriving

Art in America, Nov, 2005 by Kim Bradley

From all appearances, the visual arts in the Basque Country are flourishing as never before. This tiny region in northern Spain is experiencing a boom in museums and not-for-profit art venues that kicked off in 1997 with the opening of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (GMB) and shows no signs of letting up. The capitals of all three Basque provinces, Vitoria in Alava, San Sebastian in Guipuzcoa, and Bilbao in Vizcaya, as well as the neighboring Navarra region, boast new and spruced-up museums or are barreling ahead with wildly ambitious projects. (1) In just the past four years, this frenetic activity has produced a new contemporary-art museum in Vitoria, monographic museums in Hernani (near San Sebastian) and Alzuza (near Pamplona) dedicated to Eduardo Chillida and Jorge Oteiza, respectively, the major renovation of Bilbao's Fine Arts Museum and a mammoth art center project under way in San Sebastian. (2)

Many factors contribute to this effervescent art scene, but its guiding force--as far as the arts institutions are concerned--is the desire to reclaim, affirm and perpetuate Basque identity. The singular nature of the ancient language and culture, its nearly 40-year repression under the Franco dictatorship (1939-1975), the bloody conflict over Basque independence waged for the past 30 years by the terrorist organization ETA, and the dominance of the Basque nationalist party--which keeps identity issues in the forefront of socio-political debate [see A.i.A., July '97 and June '98]--all create a highly politicized climate in which the Basques press for their own cultural locus in the global arena.

Oddly enough, it's the Guggenheim Bilbao, an American institution, that has served as a catalyst for these aspirations. On the one hand, the GMB's popularity and economic success have stimulated a level of private arts patronage at other institutions in the region quite unusual for Spain. (3) This, combined with public funding (Basque politicians, be they nationalist, center-right or socialist, no longer need to be convinced that the arts are worthy of support), has helped the arts to thrive. On the other hand, the GMB's programming has spurred initiatives at other institutions that strive to complement or challenge it.

At its start, the GMB was enveloped in controversy. Once realized, however, Frank Gehry's shimmering creation quickly became the all-important symbol of revitalization that Basque leaders badly wanted. Anyone who attended the museum's inauguration will scarcely recognize its surroundings today. On the once quiet, nondescript street facing the museum, two boutique hotels by Catalan designers have been erected with the GMB's visitors in mind (the Gran Hotel Domine by Javier Mariscal, situated directly across from the museum, affords spectacular views of the Gehry building; the elegant Miro Hotel by fashion designer Antonio Miro is just a few minutes away by foot). The riverfront walkway, once an industrial wasteland, is now meticulously landscaped, complete with palm trees and futuristic light towers (strangely recalling Barcelona's Mediterranean promenades), as well as outdoor sculptures (the artworks, by Chillida, Lupertz, Tucker and Ruckriem, among others, were selected by Bilbao Ria 2000, the waterfront's developer). Other distinguished structures that form part of that area's redevelopment plan are newly completed: a 215-room Sheraton hotel by Mexican architect Ricardo Legorreta and a 25,000-square-foot shopping and leisure facility by Robert A.M. Stern. And in a move surely inspired by the success of Gehry's building, Pritzker Prize winner Zaha Hadid has been commissioned to redesign the Zorrozaurre peninsula, a nearby run-down port area. This huge, 193-acre project involves converting the peninsula into an island to reduce the risk of floods. It will include more than 5,300 dwellings and l0 bridges, among other facilities, by its completion in about 2015.

GMB Makes Good

Confident that a Guggenheim outlet would prove popular over the long haul, the Basque government assumed the risk of (and initial criticism for) financing the GMB project 100 percent with taxpayers' money. The high-stakes bet has paid off admirably. Now in its seventh year of operation, the GMB has outstripped all expectations. Attendance picked up sharply after a worrisome dip attributed in part to the economic downturn following the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. Even with the lull, the museum announced on its fifth anniversary, in 2002, that it had accommodated more than 5.3 million visitors since its October 1997 inauguration--more than double the forecast. If attendance for 2003 and 2004 is added to that figure, the total rises to more than 7.1 million. The museum's level of self-support, originally slated to reach 56 percent by 2000, hovers at an impressive 70 percent, the GMB's 2004 annual report states. This includes income from ticket sales, memberships, corporate sponsorships, permissions to use the registered image of the museum building, guided tours and museum space rental (for special events), as well as revenue from the GMB gift shop, bookstore, cafeteria and restaurant.