Just a Matter of Time

Museo Guggenheim, Bilbao

Time is relative. It changes with the activity and from person to person. If we’re having fun, the time flies. When we are bored, a minute passes like an hour.  Just ask any student.  Time is subjective and multi dimensional. Two people can do the same thing at the same time and end up having two very different experiences. Just ask any husband who accompanies his wife at a shoe shopping craze. Time is also emotional; we continuously shape it through our experiences and perceptions.

So how do you perceive time if the experience is disorienting or fragmented?

And no, I’m not referring to Borges’ The Garden of the Forking Paths or Labyrinths. I’m just trying to explain ‘The Matter of Time’, a truly inspiring installation we’ve just seen at the Museo Guggenheim at Bilbao. I am not even sure ‘see’ is the correct word to describe the experience. I might as well use ‘share or walk through’. 

The Matter of Time

The artist Richard Serra created eight shapes of ellipses, spirals and spheres; all layered & gigantic and invites the visitors to map each shape and space through their own motions and choices. There’s no preferred sequence to walk around (or in!) the shapes, you can start with any one of them, walk in, run around, touch, sing and experience the whole thing as you wish. 

Come to think of it, it was as if some of the stories from Labyrinths (The Circular Ruins or Chuang Tzu’s dream within a dream) materialized as huge shapes of steel.

Amazing. No ?

The Matter of Time is not the only think that’s interesting at the Museo; the building itself with it’s curving metallic exterior and huge glass & stone interior is as mind blowing as any installation that took place within.

Tulips 

Both the building and its permanent collection The Matter of Time are hailed as the very best examples of 20^th cc contemporary architecture and art by critics. Don't take my word for it, just have a look. http://www.guggenheim-bilbao.es/