Comments on: Guggenheim Bilbao – American Imperialism?

By: Cut

Cut — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 04:22:59 +0000

Unfortunately, I have the awsner to your question, but I have to say, being 12 years old, has amazing writing skills.

By: aaguirre

aaguirre — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 17:46:10 +0000

American Imperialism… hummm. The Guggenheim Museum of Bilbao is a great example of deconstructive architecture, I’m not particularly into this style but everytime I see deconstructive artwork from Daniel Libeskind, Rem Koolhaas, Peter Eisenman, Zaha Hadid or Frank Gahry, it brings back into my mind Jacques Derrida’s thoughts that inspired the essence of deconstructivism. The GMB breaks away from conventional and modern architecture standards, actually “the shape doesn´t follow the function at all” , the way I see it, the initial conceptual shape is deconstructed to the point it seems unique and imposible and thats what makes it genuine. When I watch it, it gives me a sense of controlled chaos, as if the artist had tried to make a statement, “non standard and conventional structures also have it´s space in this world”. Wait a second, isn´t Bilbao a unique, non conventional city, key point in the Basque Country that surfs in the waves of globalization and capitalism? I like to think there’s some kind of message in deconstructive artwork, just as Derrida did. Maybe what the GMB is trying to say is, hey! here is Bilbao a unique small city in the basque country where life has its own twist. Espero que te volvamos a ver por Bilbao otro dia… “you know how we roll.” :p

By: David Green

David Green — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 16:57:19 +0000

For roughly five years, off and on, I’ve lived in the UK and Greece as an American, and imperialism might be one of the more softer words used by locals to describe an American style. I point out to my mates, after I give them a good bashing of fascist history in this region, that North America itself is a country with multiple imperialists as conquerers. All of them Europeans. Because Canada is still part of the British commonwealth, technically a Brit (Gehry) designed the Bilbao Guggenheim.