Hi,
Visiting the city of Bilbao in the north of Spain is a special place for me because of the great beauty of this city that twenty years ago was an industrial city and nowadays with its imposing Guggenheim Museum is one of the most avant-garde cities in Spain.
Guggenheim Museum
This great museum of contemporary art was built at the end of the 90's and stands out for its particular curvilinear and twisted building with a shell of titanium plates that gives the building a different color depending on the time of day and also depending on whether we can enjoy a cloudy or a less cloudy day in the sky.
The museum is located on the banks of the Bilbao estuary, in an area known as Abandoibarra, next to the La Salve bridge, which is an ideal viewpoint from which to contemplate the grandeur of the building and also very close to the Torre Hueca, which is another of Bilbao's unique buildings.
As you go up La Salve bridge, you can play with your imagination and my imagination makes me see a large steamship on the banks of the estuary whose chimney is the Torre Hueca (Hollow Tower), which is located near the museum.
But apart from the museum, on the outside we can enjoy 3 works of art, each one more original than the last.
Mum
Of the three outdoor sculptures in the vicinity of the museum, the one I like the most is the sculpture by Louise Bourgeois representing a large spider.
This 10-metre high sculpture, built in bronze, steel and marble, always reminds me of the book and film The War of the Worlds, because of the sack at the bottom.
The peculiar name Mama of this work is due to a peculiar homage that the sculpture Louise Bourgeois wanted to give to her mother. For her mother was able to weave the fabric of affection and also get caught up in it.
Tall Tree & The Eye
In a small pond next to the Guggenheim Museum there is a peculiar work of art on permanent display that is a spectacle of different reflections between the different stainless steel spheres that form them.
The sculpture is composed of seventy-three polished steel spheres on three axes, which appear to follow a random pattern. However, the position of each sphere is designed to play with the reflections of the architecture, of the viewer, of the other spheres and of light and shadow. By changing the position of the observer, the city and the museum reflected in the spheres change shape, with which the author wants to evoke the ephemerality of our vision, as everything changes by changing the perspective.
My entry to #pobphotocontest organized by @friendlymoose
This sculpture was made by Anish Kapoor and before its acquisition by the museum it was a work exhibited in 2010 that was very popular with the public.
Puppy
Puppy is undoubtedly one of the most photographed sculptures in Spain and one of the most original.
It is a living sculpture, made up of plants and flowers of different colours and shades, with a steel skeleton and a complex system for watering the plants inside.
This 60-tonne living sculpture I am sure is the largest dog in the world and being located at the main entrance of the museum it acts as a great guard dog.
It is the work of sculptor Jeff Koons who presented an earlier version of this sculpture but with a wooden skeleton. But in the Bilbao version, with the intention of making it a long-lasting work of art, the skeleton was replaced by steel and the watering system for the plants was incorporated to extend its life as much as possible.
The 38,000 plants that make up the sculpture are changed a couple of times a year thanks to the budgets of the municipality and various public corporations and many private donations.
Without a doubt, a visit to the area around the Guggenheim Museum is a must if you visit Bilbao and can contemplate art at zero cost.
Best regards.
