The project of the Guggenheim Museum in Urdaibai must wait at least two years, as reported by lehendakari Iñigo Urkullu. The project will be temporarily paralyzed this year and next year because the patron saint of the museum Guggenheim Bilbao wants to devote time to “reflect” on the project. In that two-year period he will decide whether or not the Urdaibai building will continue.

Bizkaia Deputy General Elixabete Etxanobe met in Vitoria-Gasteiz on Monday and after the meeting he reported. The President states that the Museum’s Board wants to devote “time for reflection”: “We have made no decision. We will see if this idea is possible, there is much to reflect.” However, it reports that the “progress” of the project will continue, for example with regard to urban changes.

The Patron of the Museum consists of representatives of the Founding Sponsors, the Basque Government, the Provincial Council of Bizkaia and the Solomon R. President of the Board is the Guggenheim Foundation and the non-founding Sponsors and the Lehendakari of the Basque Government. Changes are now being made to the Guggenheim Foundation’s New York leadership, and a new manager responsible for the Bilbao Foundation will be incorporated in June. At the December Board meeting it was agreed to open a two-year period to analyse the “feasibility” until the end of the change of direction process.

Stop Guggenheim Urdaibai platform: Not acceptable

The two-year suspension of the project is not enough for many actors. The Stop Guggenheim Urdaibai platform does not coincide with the project’s provisional halt: “Two years of suspension is not acceptable, that is not enough. The platform will continue to work until the project is finally paralysed.” A spokesman for the platform has linked the suspension to the proximity of the elections. Itxaso Atutxa assured in his statements to Euskadi Irratia that the suspension "has nothing to do with" electoral interests.

The Platform recalls that it has resorted because a Ministerial Order on 19 October reduced from 100 to 20 meters the “protection bondage” of the part of the coast that want to build the project. The platform has appealed against the modification so that they can once again declare a protection servitude of 100 meters, “as established by Law 22/1988, of 28 July, of Costas”.

He points out that “it is impossible” to carry out the Guggenheim Urdaibai project with the current laws and that the project is “illegal”: “It must be remembered that the Provincial Council of Bizkaia is amending various regulations to place within the biosphere reserve the two museums planned within the Guggenheim Urdaibai project, as the current regulations do not allow it to advance in the museum project.” Nor does it coincide with the two-year suspension: “Two years of suspension is not acceptable, that is not enough. The platform will continue to work until the project is finally paralysed.”

ELA has published a press release after being aware of the decision and has asked that the process of reflection encourage the participation of citizens and agents to “rethink among all the project of the future that the region wants and needs”. It reports that it will promote “projects that allow the eco-social transition”: “What the region needs is a future project based on the principles of the eco-social transaction, that puts people and lives at the centre, that respects the limits of the planet, and that, rather than for the benefit of big business, is designed for the well-being of citizens”.