The shadow of the Guggenheim over Urdaibai still
- Since its presentation in 2008, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao has launched and stopped its project to open a second branch in the Urdaibai area. In the last week, however, the project has been put on the table again, with reference to the European Next Generation funds. The project is carried out by means of a vial joining two buildings located in Gernika and Murueta.
The so-called “Guggenheim 2” project in 2008 was put on the table by the Provincial Council of Bizkaia. The idea was to locate in the Sukarrieta colonies of the BBK what would be an addition of the Museum of Bilbao. From the very beginning, discrepancies arose, the public did not see with good eyes that such a project would be carried out in the area declared 25 years ago as a biosphere reserve, and in the political landscape of Busturialdea there were also many discrepancies, diverse. Daniel Udalaitz gathered these discrepancies in a report.
However, at the same time, the government of Patxi López opposed the project, which made it difficult to implement the Guggenheim 2 and the economic crisis. The project, which has been sleeping deeply throughout this time, has never been interrupted and the intention of the Provincial Council of Bizkaia and the director of the Guggenheim Museum of Bilbao, Juan Igancio Vidé, has continued until the appropriate time.
In 2012, Vidé said: “In 2020 the present museum will be small. It is not a matter for today or tomorrow, but it is something we consider absolutely necessary in ten years' time. It’s an issue that requires a great deal of agreement and what you have to do is have a project like Urdaibai,” he added.
Over the years, the expansion to Urdaibai has been present in different strategic plans of the museum. On this occasion, the Provincial Council of Bizkaia has revitalised the plan within the framework of the Next Generation European funds. It is one of the 23 projects submitted from Bizkaia, and would be supported by EUR 81 million if selected. However, the total cost of the project is estimated at EUR 127 million.
The announcement of the reactivation of the project took place at the end of last year, but it has been extended at the meeting held this week by the board of the Guggenheim Museum Foundation Bilbao. The meeting was chaired by the lehendakari of the Basque Country, Iñigo Urkullu, and was attended by the Deputy General of Bizkaia and Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Foundation, Unai Rementeria; the Mayor of Bilbao, Bingen Zupiria; the Director of Culture of the Basque Government, Lorea Bilbao; the sport
The meeting dealt with, inter alia, Strategic Plan 2021-2023, and in this regard the new enlargement project of the Guggenheim Bilbao has been put on the table again. Work has been done in recent months to update the plan put in place more than a decade ago. This is called “green deployment”, as one of the main parts of the plan is the natural route between the two buildings that will house the new museum.
According to the Museum, “the project will bring a new model that will combine artistic production, ecology, technology, the relationship between people and research, and that will allow visitors to live a new experience.”
In 2018, when analyzing the sites for the expansion of the museum in the area of Urdaibai, he chose the site of the former factory of Dalia de Gernika, owned by the Provincial Council of Bizkaia, and among the options was the Murueta shipyard and the football field of Urbieta. On this occasion, the project brings together those of Dalia and Murueta, and the “green way” that would unite the two buildings.
The financing of the project is mainly linked to the Next Generation funds, as confirmed by Vidé himself this week. However, Rementeria has stressed that although no money is received from these funds the project will go ahead and that the Guggenheim will also arrive in Urdaibai, even later.
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