An Art Education in Bilbao
One of the reasons I found El Camino del Norte appealing compared to other Caminos is that it goes through some of the top Northern destinations in Spain including San Sebastián, Santander, Laredo, and Bilbao. Bilbao is the largest city in Basque Country and I knew I wanted to spend a few days there.
The most famous attraction in Bilbao is the Guggenheim Bilbao. It was designed by architect Frank Gehry and opened in 1997. You don’t have to go inside in order to appreciate it, as the architecture is arguably a bigger draw than the art inside of it. A number of sculptures surround the building, including Koontz’s “Puppy” and an enormous spider named “Maman” created by Louise Bourgeois.
At 17€ my ticket to the Guggenheim was more expensive than most of the places I’ve slept so far on El Camino. The following photos were surreptitiously taken because the Guggenheim weirdly has a policy against taking photographs. I found this policy particularly funny when it came to the Jenny Holzer pieces because so much of her work was literally in conversation with people on the streets of New York (People would write responses to her essays on the essays).
There was an entire floor of the museum dedicated to Holzer’s work. Her aptly named works “Inflammatory Essays” and “Truisms” were thought provoking but after a certain point started to make my head hurt in their density. Some of my favorite pieces include her “paintings” of redacted Mueller investigation court filings. Talk about topical. I felt like a covert Russian agent when I took my illicit photos of the exhibition. Holzer’s use of words as a medium in and of itself is pretty clever and not something I had thought too much about prior to experiencing the exhibition.
Pivoting to something a little less highbrow, I managed to catch a screening of Avengers: Endgame on opening night. It was only 8€! I normally avoid movie theaters when I travel but it is fun to see how they vary from country-to-country. In Spain, most of the movies are dubbed but there are select screenings in English that are subtitled. The most disappointing thing was that there were no previews, only straight up commercials! The experience of watching the film was interesting too because it was clear to me that some of the humor wasn’t quite landing on this audience, but they still seemed to really enjoy it. I found that watching an English movie with Spanish subtitles might be more helpful for learning a language than watching a Spanish movie with English subtitles.
To cap off my Bilbao art experience I attended the art show opening of Eduardo Hurtado, an artist I met the previous day. I had no idea what to expect other than the fact that it featured sculptures, a performance, and beer.
Edu’s gallery opening was featured in the local newspaper in Bilbao and the turnout was impressive.
The Exhibition was called “Lo Que Vuelve es Mariposa” which translates to “The Butterfly is Back.” I easily spotted the show when I saw a mob of people standing outside of a gallery. I made my way inside the gallery an joined the people huddled around waiting for something to begin. The room was filled with mixed-media sculptures of all shapes and sizes. They were constructed with what appeared to be found objects like shells, wood, and ceramics. As a sort of accent on the pieces they they were covered in things like pepper, cinnamon, and actual human semen. They were carefully assembled all over the space which created a hazard for both the guests and the art but literally kept people on their toes. There was a woman ushering everyone into the space in Spanish. I couldn’t understand what she was saying except a continuous gentle ¡Cuidado!” (watch out!) over and over again.
A person in a long pink wig sat in the corner of the room brushing her hair with her back to the audience. She was wrapped in the kind of rubber hose that I’m pretty sure is only used to shoot up heroin (Where do people even find that stuff? Is there a special store?). It was only when she turned around I could see her very hairy chest and that she was wearing nothing but a conch shell Adam & Eve-style. Her face was adorned with butterfly wings and she had these pronounced mischievous eyebrows that almost appeared to connect together.
She stayed in character and in conch shell the entire time
The performance began shortly after I arrived and I stood with my back to the wall trapped behind a tall sculpture. Edu sat in front of a small stereo system and started making bird calls. It was actually very impressive and had I not known it was him I would have thought it was an actual bird. While he made his bird calls he was recording himself and then playing back his recording while he accompanied himself with additional bird sounds. This created a cool effect where it sounded as if the room was filled with birds. Edu then recited a poem he’d written. Despite not being able understand a word he was saying, I was able to appreciate the beauty of his delivery.
After the performance ended wine, beer, and cheese was served to the guests. Edu fluttered around trying to say hello to all of his guests while I drank some beer and vino tinto. I joked with Edu that his art was in conversation with all of the guests that kept knocking shit over. Many times Edu could be spotted squatting down to fix something one of the guests had disturbed. These kinds of large social situations can be intimidating enough when you don’t know anyone but it’s made even more difficult when you don’t speak the language of the other guests. After some liquid courage and some introductions from Edu I started chatting with other guests and made fast friends with some of the other attendees.
Once the show was finished we went to a nearby bar that served vermouth on tap for 2€ a glass. I think for most Americans the only time we drink vermouth is inside of a martini. We then went to Edu’s studio to continue drinking before finally heading out to the club around 1:30. If you didn’t know this already everything in Spain happens about 3 hours later than it needs to, but it’s a lot of fun once you adjust your schedule accordingly. I left “early” around 3am so I could go to bed before my next full day of walking. After I left the group stayed out into the wee hours of the morning and went back to the studio for an after-party. They say that no two Camino experiences are alike, and I have to say I don’t think any other pilgrims had an experience like mine.
A must for history junkies