We´ve spent most of our vacation in Barcelona, but made short trips to San Sebastian and Bilbao to see Frank Gehry´s Guggenheim. It is a truly special building and is much more of a homage to the Spanish architect Antonio Gaudi than I had imagined. The Richard Serra ´The Matter of Time´ exhibition on the main floor is one of the most phenomenonologically challenging pieces I have ever come across. I am sure this is not news to many, as the pieces were installed along with the building in 1997, but I thought it worth mentioning since I had not ever visited Guggenheim in Bilbao.
Another challenging exhibition was the museum´s survey of artist Anish Kapoor. Developed at the Royal Academy of Art in London, the exhibition has traveled to Bilbao and been a smash success to gallery audiences for its ingenious use of materials, machinery, and space, which go as far as to physically assault gallery walls more commonly used for hanging and honouring works of art. Kapoor´s cannon, which violently fires globs of rich red pigment into a corner, asks us to question the very nature of the exhibition space and what it has evolved to commemorate over time. As Kapoor´s bloody red pigment smears against the walls and falls to the floor, I cannot help but wonder whether he is assaulting the history of the exhibition of historical and cultural artifacts, or more precisely, the nature of representation, which has often centered its own attack on those caught within the gaze. His is a violent performance that shocks us into questioning the purpose of the museum/gallery and the cause of the artist.
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