| | |  Vallarta Living | Art Talk | July 2008 
Guadalajara Guggenheim Project in Motion
 Katie Weatherall - PVNN
| | The rising star of Enrique Norten's career as an international architect ascends yet another level with the selection of his iconic design for the proposed Guggengheim Museum in Guadalajara, Mexico. | | |
The week of July 10th saw 'some' developments in the much anticipated Guggenheim Project in Guadalajara, now scheduled for completion in the Huentitán Canyon in 2011. Promoters of the project, that has shown little sign of progress, flew to New York for discussions with members of the Guggenheim Foundation. In an interview with Publico newspaper, the director of proceedings, Fernanda Fernández, said, "The Guggenheim of Guadalajara project is alive and active."
The project quite simply wants to hurry up. Art museums of the Guggenheim's ilk are big news. The British Museum, which saw record breaking attendance figures this year for their Terracotta Army exhibition, was named the top visitor attraction of the UK earlier this month, beating previous tourist spots like Madame Tussuads. It seems that there is more audience pull to cultural artifacts on display at the BM than wax-works of Will Smith and chums.
It seems museums have become much esteemed epicenters of cultural growth and development. Although this is not a new phenomenon. During the Blitz in London in 1942 much of the catalogue of the National Gallery was secretly buried in the countryside. A letter appeared in British broad sheet The Times: "Because London's face is scarred and bruised these days, we need more than ever to see beautiful things. I would like to welcome the opportunity of seeing a few of the hundreds of the nation's masterpieces now stored in a safe place. I know the risk, but I believe it would be worth it."
And so the British public flocked to the Gallery where an Old Master a month was brought out of exile, making Trafalgar Square a place of refuge and mutual belonging in times of conflict. More recently, post 9/11 the Metropolitan Museum of Art saw a resurgence in visitors as New Yorkers sought a neutrally reflective and shared space.
As audiences for classical music, theatre and art films decline, the last twenty years have seen a global resurgence in museum visits. According to the Guardian newspaper, global art museum attendance has grown from 22 million visitors in 1962 to 100 million in 2000. The museum can be viewed as a secular offering a neutral location for nurturing civic bonds. There are few neutral spaces where people can gather and reflect around art and objects which encompass heritage, modernity and competing cultural hinterlands, like the museum does.
Le Louvre in Paris is one of the most famous art museums in the world and millions flock to see the Mona Lisa amongst other exhibits. Queues are common practice at the Uffizi in Florence, Italy, the Pushkin in Moscow and the opening weekend of the refurbished Kelvingrove in Scotland saw most of Glasgow in attendance.
The "Man On Fire" and other murals by José Clemente Orozco in the Hospicio Cabañas capture the hearts of many with his depiction of the Mexican Revolution and adds to what makes Guadalajara already a cultural destination. The Guggenheim will only add to this. The Guggenheim 'brand' is franchised from Las Vegas to Venice. The Guadalajara project will be the sixth and there is a further planned for Abu Dhabi.
Museums of this nature are as much about the architecture as the exhibitions. Richard Roger's Pompidou drove the regeneration of the run-down Marais district in Paris and Frank Gehry´s Guggenheim in post-industrial Spanish city of Bilbao stands out among success stories. The building is one of the few projects on such a scale that has gone up on schedule and in budget. 1.3 million people flocked to the museum in its first year and over US $200 million was generated for local businesses. Mexican architect, Enrique Norten takes the bold task with Guadalajara´s Guggenheim.
Hopefully funding promised by the National Council for Culture and Arts will arrive soon and finally kick the project into motion.
Katie Weatherall is a participant with Global Volunteer Projects. Having travelled to Guadalajara, Mexico from London, England; she is working as an intern with Publico newspaper and BanderasNews.com as part of Global Volunteer's Journalism placement project for the month of July 2008. In October 2008, she starts her final year of her degree in Journalism at London College Of Communication, after which she plans to pursue a career in journalism. |
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