Page 21 - World of Art Contemporary Art magazine: The 2023 Guggenheim issue

Both the numbers of exhibition viewers and the mass Seguros Bilbao that turned Frank Gehry’s Atrium into the
attendance of events for the general public are proof landscape for a sensory journey through the history of
that the Museum is in good health and remains a major the Museum and the city of Bilbao. Celebrations, however,
attraction after 25 years. After a semester of gradual went on throughout the year. A full program of events was
recovery after the pandemic, the Museum had its best designed to bring concerts and performances to more
summer in its history, hitting record-high numbers of than 13,000 people, including the performance of Gabriel
visitors in August and September. With 1,289,147 visitors Erkoreka’s Hamar (a piece composed for the Museum’s
throughout the year, 2022 was the third best year after 10th anniversary) in April; the concert The World’s a
2017 (20th anniversary) and 1998 (first year in operation, Museum in May - a tale by Basque writer Kirmen Uribe
with wide media coverage). This figure attests to the set to music by the Bilbao Choral Society and the Euskadi
Museum’s sustained success, its function as a driving Brass ensemble; the Concert for Two Anniversaries by
force at the regional level, and its resilience in the face the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra (BOS), which celebrated
of adversity. The special program of activities organized its 100th anniversary, and the open-air show Symfeuny
to celebrate the Museum’s anniversary reached out by the street theater company Deabru Beltzak, which
to a high number of visitors. In December, more than gathered 4000 people on the Museum’s forecourt, in
50,000 people enjoyed Immersions, a show sponsored by June; the performance of Francisco Escudero’s Symphony

Yves Klein (Nice, 1928 – Paris, 1962). Fire Fountain, 1961 (manufactured
in 1997) Fire. Site-specific dimensions, Guggenheim Bilbao Museum. ©
Guggenheim Bilbao Museum

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