— Chapter VII of XIII —

Euskadi

Bilbao at the centre and the Cantabrian coast beyond. Frank Gehry's titanium fish on the Nervión, the eight weathering-steel sculptures Richard Serra placed in its belly, and the Bay of Biscay at dusk — silver, then gold, then dark.

Bilbao · Costa Vasca · 4 Photographs
Richard Serra's The Matter of Time installation in the Fish Gallery of the Guggenheim Bilbao — massive weathering-steel curves on a concrete floor under vaulted ceiling
No. 01 · Chapter VII · España

The Matter of Time

Richard Serra · 1994–2005 · permanent installation · Guggenheim Bilbao

Eight sculptures, made of weathering steel — the same alloy used for bridges and ship hulls because it rusts on the surface and then stops, sealing itself. Together they weigh more than a thousand tons. Serra spent eleven years on the cycle; the Guggenheim built the Fish Gallery 130 metres long specifically to hold them. To experience the work, you have to walk through it. The sculpture does not begin until your body enters the curve. — Photographer's Note

"Time is the only material that doesn't reproduce itself."

— Richard Serra · on The Matter of Time

Wed 2 Jul 2025 · 09:51  ·  Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max  ·  Main Camera  ·  6.8mm  ·  f/1.78  ·  1/50s  ·  ISO 400

Fish Gallery · Guggenheim Museum Bilbao 43.2687° N · 2.9340° W
View on Maps ↗
View next →
The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao by Frank Gehry — titanium-clad curving facade with Anish Kapoor's Tall Tree and the Eye sculpture of mirror spheres to the right, reflecting pool in front, overcast sky
No. 02 · Chapter VII · España

The Bilbao Effect

Guggenheim Museum Bilbao · Frank Gehry · opened 18 October 1997

Until 1997, Bilbao was a declining post-industrial port city — shipyards closing, river dead with effluent, capital fleeing. Then Frank Gehry built this on the south bank of the Nervión: 24,000 square metres of titanium scales, an architecture computer-modelled with software borrowed from the French aerospace industry. Within ten years the city had reinvented itself, and economists had a name for what happened to it. Anish Kapoor's column of mirrored spheres on the right — Tall Tree and the Eye, 2009 — joined the building eleven years after it opened, looking like seventy-three soap bubbles trying to remember which one is the original. — Photographer's Note

"Architecture should speak of its time and place, but yearn for timelessness."

— Frank Gehry · architect of the Guggenheim Bilbao

Wed 2 Jul 2025 · 10:38  ·  Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max  ·  Ultrawide Camera  ·  2.2mm  ·  f/2.2  ·  1/680s  ·  ISO 50

Guggenheim Bilbao · south bank of the Nervión 43.2687° N · 2.9340° W
View on Maps ↗
View next →
The Bay of Biscay from the Costa Vasca at dusk — hazy mountains layering into the horizon, a small islet, the sea silver in the low sun
No. 03 · Chapter VII · España

Itsasoa

The sea · the Bay of Biscay · evening

Itsasoa is the Basque word for the sea — and the Basques have a great many words for it, because for two thousand years it has fed them, drowned them, and taken them to the New World and back. The language itself, Euskara, is the oldest in Europe — older than Latin, older than the Celtic tongues, older than every other living language west of the Caucasus. Nobody knows where it came from. The sea is at least that old, and probably knows. — Photographer's Note

"Itsasoa beti ezberdina da."
The sea is never twice the same.

— Basque proverb · Euskara

Thu 28 Sep 2023 · 19:12  ·  Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max  ·  Telephoto Camera  ·  9mm  ·  f/2.8  ·  1/3300s  ·  ISO 32

Costa Vasca · Bay of Biscay · Euskadi 43.4196° N · 2.7196° W
View on Maps ↗
View next →
Inside one of Richard Serra's torqued spiral sculptures at the Guggenheim Bilbao — weathering steel curving overhead, warm uplight, a wood-panelled wall visible in the background
No. 04 · Chapter VII · España

Inside Time

Inside one of the Serra spirals · Fish Gallery · Guggenheim Bilbao

Same gallery as No. 01, two years earlier, looking up from inside one of the torqued spirals. You walk in along an opening narrower than your shoulders; the wall on your left tips toward you, the wall on your right tips away; the floor stays flat, but your inner ear stops believing it. Serra spent decades teaching steel mills how to bend three-inch plate without cracking it. The result, when you're standing inside, is that your body — not your eyes — does the perceiving. — Photographer's Note

"I treat space as a material."

— Richard Serra

Fri 29 Sep 2023 · 13:27  ·  Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max  ·  Main Camera  ·  6.86mm  ·  f/1.78  ·  1/50s  ·  ISO 640

Fish Gallery · Guggenheim Bilbao 43.2687° N · 2.9340° W
View on Maps ↗
View next →
— Next Chapter —
España →
Chapter VIII of XIII
← All Chapters