Date and Time of Visit: April 30, 2016 at approximately 3:00 p.m.
Go to Bilbao, the city of art.
To Bilbao City
From the interesting World Heritage Site « Vizcaya Bridge », we went up the Nervion River to the city of Bilbao. It took us about 40 minutes to get to Bilbao city through the slow, complicated, and crowded road. Bilbao is like a natural fortress, surrounded by 400m mountains and located in a not-so-wide basin.
My first impression of the city of Bilbao is that it is very urban and artistic. The skyscrapers and the innovative architecture of the Guggenheim Museum, which I will introduce later. Anyway, I felt it was urban and artistic.
Guggenheim Museum
さて、ビルバオに来た目的は「美術館巡り」です。まずは今やビルバオの顔ともいうべき[highlight]「Guggenheim Museum」[/highlight]へと向かいます。駐車場はこの美術館そばにある公共の地下駐車場に。とてもきれいで立派でした。
This Guggenheim Museum was built in 1997, and the one in New York is very famous. I have visited this museum when I was a student.
The first thing that strikes you about the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao is this « dog » at the entrance.
Jeff Koons – It’s called « Puppy ». It’s cute, but it’s just huge!
The design of the building is also quite fun. Taken from the promenade leading from the parking lot to the museum.
The very modern building is a pleasure to just look at.
By the way, it’s quite spacious.
However, I had no idea what was going on because the works here were mainly so-called contemporary art. However, even if I don’t understand it well, I would like to acquire the knowledge of contemporary art. Will I be able to understand it if I receive a proper explanation?
At any rate, I brought the brochure back with me. (I got the French version for my study.)
If you look carefully, you’ll see that it’s « Francis Bacon Exhibition » from September 30. What a mess!
This kind of experiential work may still be easy to understand. You can walk around inside. It made me a little dizzy. This is a work called « La Matière du Temps » by an artist named Richard Serra. This is a work called « La Matière du Temps » by an artist named Richard Serra. By the way, this is a permanent work. Well, I guess it’s natural because there is no way to move it.
Many other works apparently change with the seasons. Come to think of it, there were also Picasso’s paintings and Andy Warhol’s works.
By the way, the French teacher I’m taking online lessons with now seems to know a lot about this area, and I heard that she has a free talk course about art, so I’d like to take this course when my French gets better. I wonder when that will be.
For the list of the works, please visit the official website
Guggenheim Museumのカフェでピンチョス
By the way, I took a short break at the cafe of this museum, and the pintxos I had here were very delicious.
For more on pintxos, see my other post here.
However, the cafe itself was not a very relaxing space.
Bilbao Museum of Art (Musée des beaux arts de Bilbao)
さて、ビルバオにはもう一つ美術館があります。[highlight]「Bilbao Museum of Art (Musée des beaux arts de Bilbao)」[/highlight]です。Guggenheim Museumからは5分ほどの距離です。近いです。
This museum seemed to have a very well-balanced collection of medieval religious paintings, modern and contemporary works, and works by local Basque artists.
I didn’t take many pictures, so sorry for the pamphlet-centric post.
For me, it was probably a little easier to appreciate than the Guggenheim.
Official site is here:.
Events related to Cultural Capital of Europe
By the way, there is a logo like this in this museum.
This is the logo of the 2016 European Capital of Culture, San Sebastián, also in the Basque Country, was chosen as the European Capital of Culture. There was also a related event in Bilbao, a short distance away.
I’d like to talk a bit about the European Capital of Culture in the San Sebastian section, which I plan to visit later.
Bilbao sightseeing is only these two museums. I thought it would have been good to stay one night here and relax a little more. And I’d like to walk around the city with a camera slowly. But I believe that I will visit again.
この後は、日程の関係で再び2時間ほどドライブ、西側のカンタブリア地方に行ってまいります。ただし、翌日はまたバスクへと戻ってくる予定です。日程調整が効率よく組めなかったためです。（続く）
