Guggenheim

On the 12th of May, a wednesday,  we went to the Guggenheim museum which is situated in Bilbao. It was about an hour drive to the museum. The road we were on, runs along the Nervión river so we could see the museum under the dark heavy clouds. Just outside was a ghastly looking giant spider which apparently, from the opinion of the passengers, looked like Alejo Ortega's pencil case. We arrived in a muddy car park and made our way towards the museum, but most of the crowd weren't too enthusiastic. Outside of the museum there was a giant dog, about 20 feet high, which was covered in flowers. Many of the students who saw questioned whether or not the dog was actually art. It looked like something from a mini-golf course. There are some large steps leading down to the entrance. As we arrived Txema told us that we could do what we wanted in Bilbao for thiry minutes, so everyone raced out crazily and made for the shops. The be honest, Bilbao is quite a dreay place so I wasn't that enthusiastic walking around in some tragic city, but it didn't help that it was cloudy and dark. I'm not totally sure that i would like to visit Bilbao again. 

The museum is known for its unusual shape which is similar to that of a boat. It was designed by a north american whose name is Frank O. Gehry and it is situated by the Nervión river. The building itself is an extraordinary combination of interconnecting shapes. Strangely shaped blocks, perpendicular to each other makes the building very unique in its own way. Glass curtain walls provide the building with the light and transparency it needs. The glass walls were made and installed to protect the works of art from heat and radiation. As a whole, Gehry's design creates a spectacular, a visible structure that has the presence of a huge sculpture set against the background of the city. 

Inside is very different, when the tour guide arrived, we sat down in the main hall on the ground floor. Looking up it was very high and it had small bridges connecting each side of the building where the different exhibitions were. It had a strange looking elevator which bent over itself like a banana. 

I'm not a big fan of museums but this museums had some good parts to it. At first the lady took us to the elevator and we went up one floor. She took us to some televisions which showed someone cleaning a skeleton, which was very uninteresting. We moved to a room which had some pictures of depressed, half-naked children on the beach while it's been raining. There was also a strange, demented chinese lady which looked like a cartoon character. She was performing conact juggling in what looked like a train station. As we explored we say many strange disturbing images and paintings. In many of the exhibitions there was a television showing something. For example there was an older couple which were eating an onion for both of them, their saliva was dripping everywhere. Watching the video was honestly very disturbing.

After the trip I wasn't sure that this was actullay a museum, it was more like an interesting mix of a nude gallery and contempary art. I don't think this sort of art is very appealing.