Guggenheim Bilbao
ZERO
Site-specific Installation, 2018
Concept, Creative Direction, Media Direction
Overview
It was the honour of a lifetime to create a permanent installation within the iconic titanium walls of the Guggenheim Bilbao. ZERO is an experiential media installation, commissioned by the museum to provide an introduction to the history of the building, its impact on Basque Country, and the artwork of its permanent collection. The Museum challenged us to create an innovative way to celebrate their own history and invite visitors to engage with their impactful legacy as much as they do with their collection.
We reimagined a wedge-shaped gallery as a 360-degree immersive theatre, using a combination of projection and reflections to create a kaleidoscopic lens through which to interpret the Museum’s story. A trailer-like film functions at once as a cinematic narrative and a living wallpaper that transforms the gallery. The combined result is a space that is simultaneously informative, experiential and invites visitors to explore their own creativity as they discover the surprising vistas created by the installation.
created at Local Projects for the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao
Legacy
Beyond the iconic Frank Gehry designed building, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is historic for its role in the revitalization of the Province of Biscay and the City of Bilbao from a largely industrial port city to a creative and cultural destination. It is a proud symbol of how investment in the arts can transform a community.
We worked closely with the curatorial staff to craft visual storytelling that is both engaging and informative for its over 1 million annual global visitors. In our research, we also worked with the Museum’s and City’s archives to also find stories that would be surprising and nostalgic to locals who lived through the transformation. Seeing grandparents connect with the imagery and explain the history of their city to grandchildren at the pre-opening ceremony, echoed our intent to create an experience for both the global and local community.
Physical Design
Our challenge was to reinvent the museum’s introduction gallery, a small wedge-shaped room, previously used as an art storage space. Playing off the geometry of the space, we flanked the side walls with mirrors and constructed a curved projection screen to create the illusion of a cavernous cylindrical theatre. A relatively simple intervention, but one that allowed us to maximize the occupancy of a small space and create a unique storytelling canvas. We were also tickled by the idea of creating a perfect circle, albeit virtual one, within a Frank Gehry designed building.
Media Direction
Borrowing cues from Film Title design, we distilled the story of the museum to key visual moments, each crafted from a combination of original cinematography, archival imagery, cgi and animation. Because of the unique canvas, every moment needed to be effective both cinematically and experientially as it wrapped around the reflected circumference of the gallery.
A singular point of focus. A transportive panorama. A kaleidoscopic texture. An immersion of colour. With each change in imagery, it shifts the visitors understanding of the space. The result is an immersive media experience that invites visitors to discover their own viewsheds and contexts through which to engage the story.
This sense of active participation in the artwork began as a narrative introduction to the Museum but became a cognitive one as well, encouraging visitors to find their own way to appreciate artwork.
Original Composition
We partnered with our friends at Mixtape Club to create an immersive original composition that complimented the enveloping visuals of the gallery. The Txalaparta, a Basque percussion instrument, became the backbone of the score blending the contemporary with traditional rhythms. We worked with a team of local musicians to sample their instrumentation and educate us on the history, construction and performance of the Txalaparta, which resembles a duel between two or more percussionists. This unique merging of traditional instrumentation with modern production and sound design resulted a truly bespoke composition that has become the soundtrack to the Museum.
Behind the Scenes
Credits
Experience Design
Experience Design: Local Projects
Creative Director: Christopher Fung
Project Director: Naomi Seixas
Physical Designer: Peter Vikar
Visual Experience Designer: McKenna Cole
Content Developer: Francie Grogan
Content Coordinator: Alice Tallman
Construction / Fabrication
Construction / Fabrication: Arquiplan
Media Design
Media Design: Local Projects
Creative Director / Editor: Christopher Fung
CG Artist: Craig Kohlmeyer
Composition / Sound Design
Composition / Sound Design: Mixtape Club
Creative Director: Chris Lennox Smith
Managing Director: Jesse Casey
Video Documentation
Director: Christopher Fung
Director of Photography: James Medcraft
Additional Photography: Christopher Fung
Visitor Gallery
@ninsjimenez
@as_it_unfolds
@el.guga