ANNUAL REPORT 2018 ACTIVITY REPORT 2018 PRESENTATION 4 ART PROGRAM 6 EDUCATION 16 VISITORS 25 COMMUNITY 27 CORPORATE MEMBERS 30 MEDIA 33 DIGITAL METRICS 36 STORE/BOOKSTORE 37 PUBLICATIONS 38 MANAGEMENT MODEL 39 IMPACT 40 STRATEGIC PLAN 41 AWARDS AND DISTINCTIONS 43 VIP VISITORS 44 GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM BILBAO FOUNDATION 46 Comité Asesor Miembros de Honor - Febrero 2019 - Febrero de Honor Asesor Miembros Comité 2 3 PRESENTATION 2018 was, without a doubt, a very positive year for the In addition, it also presented an exquisite selection of Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. In terms of museum works from the Thannhauser Collection of the Solomon attendance, we have seen how the upward trend of the last R. Guggenheim Museum in New York and the video few years was strengthened and reached 1,265,756 visitors, creations of Michael Snow, Javier Téllez, and Diana the third highest year-end number in the history of the Thater, which the public was able to view in the Film & Museum. This figure was only surpassed in 1998, our first Video gallery, devoted to the moving image. The success year in operation, and 2017, when we celebrated the 20th of this programming was confirmed by data published in anniversary of the institution. The Art Newspaper, according to which three of the four contemporary art exhibitions in the world that received the The percentage of foreign visitors (71%) has remained largest number of visitors were held at the Guggenheim essentially the same, with visitors coming primarily from Museum Bilbao, while two of our modern art exhibitions France, Great Britain, Germany, the U.S. and Italy. Visitors were in the top ten, including the most visited one, Chagall. from the Basque country made up 9%, and 20% from the The Breakthrough Years. rest of Spain, of which, as in prior years, those from Madrid visitor orientation room. Thus, over 2018, this space has The results for 2018, which can be found in this report, were and Barcelona were the most numerous. The growth in The educational programs designed for on-site and on- undergone a radical transformation in response to the greater than those of the prior year, while self-financing attendance was matched by an increased digital presence, line, including the TopARTE initiative begun in 2017 for current preferences of the public, and implemented new reached 70%, positioning the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao with more traffic on the Museum website and more the 20th anniversary and continuing successfully through technologies. This has transformed the visitors’ first contact as a leader among European cultural institutions. engagement on social media. These figures confirm the 2018 to provide a space for cultural agents and entities of with the Museum, its history, Collection, and surroundings Museum’s continuing ability to attract people, and is due the Basque Country, included a rich variety of disciplines, into a fully immersive experience. Juan Ignacio Vidarte largely to its commitment to a strong art program of varied such as music, film, video, dance, performance, theater, Director General and high-quality exhibitions. and gastronomy, providing the area with a wide range Also within this strategic context, towards the end of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao that complements the art program and helps energize the year the Museum presented Artitz, a documentation center Along these lines, Joana Vasconcelos. I’m Your Mirror was cultural sphere of the city. for arts content in Basque. This project was created to our third most successful exhibition in terms of average bring together the main texts related to the exhibitions in number of daily visitors. Organized by the Museum in close In terms of the support received through the Museum’s this language that the Museum has created throughout its collaboration with the artist, the show began to tour, showing new Community of arts and culture lovers, figures for 2018 history, and to make them accessible to uses as a means of first at the Museu Serralves in Oporto and then in Rotterdam. exceeded 45,000—Corporate and Individual Members, highlighting this knowledge and contributing to the creation In 2018, the Museum also dedicated monographic exhibitions Followers, and beneficiaries of the Erdu initiative—by the of the discourse on modern and contemporary art in devoted to the artists Henri Michaux, Esther Ferrer, Marc end of the year. This project was put into operation in Basque. This initiative has taken the form of a web platform Chagall, and Alberto Giacometti, and presented thematic 2017 as part of our Strategic Plan, and has also seen an on the Museum’s website, and is continuously added to and exhibitions, such as the one devoted to contemporary art upward trend, articulating the participation and support the updated. in China after the events of 1989, and Architecture Effects, Museum receives at the corporate and individual level. which explored the most experimental expressions of the Other initiatives under the Strategic Plan included the Lastly, as for every year the Museum has analyzed the relationships between architecture, art, and storytelling. revision of the mission and goals of Zero Espazioa, the impact of its presence on the surrounding economic activity. 4 5 THE FOUNDATIONS OF ART PROGRAM TODAY’S ART Title: Henri Michaux: The Other Side Dates: February 2 – May 13, 2018 Galleries: 305, 306, 307 Curator: Manuel Cirauqui Nr of works: 230 Nr of visitors: 281,618 Title: Chagall. The Breakthrough Years, 1911–1919 Dates: June 1 – September 2, 2018 Galleries: 305, 306, 307 Curator: Lucía Agirre Nr of works: 86 Nr of visitors: 453,182 Title: Van Gogh to Picasso. The Thannhauser Legacy Dates: September 21, 2018 – March 24, 2019 Galleries: 305, 306, 307 Curator: Megan Fontanella Nr of works: 47 Nr of visitors: 347,786 (as of December 31, 2018) 7 TEMPORARY VIEWS OF EXHIBITIONS CONTEMPORARY ART Title: Art and China after 1989: Title: Esther Ferrer. Intertwined Spaces Theater of the World Dates: March 16 – June 10, 2018 Dates: May 11 – September 23, 2018 Gallery: 105 Galleries: second floor Curator: Petra Joos Curators: Alexandra Munroe, Nr of works: 9 Philip Tinari, Hou Hanru Nr of visitors: 303,535 Nr of works: 126 Nr of visitors: 619,411 Title: Alberto Giacometti. A Retrospective Title: Joana Vasconcelos. I’m Your Mirror Dates: October 19, 2018 – February 24, 2019 Dates: June 29 – November 11, 2018 Galleries: second floor Gallery: 105, Atrium, and outdoor spaces Curators: Catherine Grenier, Petra Joos Curator: Petra Joos, Enrique Juncosa Nr of works: 203 Nr of works: 42 Nr of visitors: 234,338 Nr of visitors: 649,082 (as of December 31, 2018) Título: Architecture Effects Dates: December 5, 2018 – April 28, 2019 Gallery: 105 Curator: Manuel Cirauqui Nr of works: 19 Nr of visitors: 77,595 (as of December 31, 2018) 8 9 VIEWS OF CONTEMPORARY ART: FILM & VIDEO Title: Michael Snow: Closed Circuit Dates: March 23 – July 1, 2018 Gallery: 103 Curator: Manuel Cirauqui Nr of works: 4 Nr of visitors: 365,503 Title: Javier Téllez: Shadow Play Dates: July 12 – November 18, 2018 Gallery: 103 Curator: Manuel Cirauqui Nr of works: 2 Nr of visitors: 612,189 Title: Diana Thater: A Runaway World Dates: November 29, 2018 – March 18, 2019 Gallery: 103 Curator: Manuel Cirauqui Nr of works: 3 Nr of visitors: 89,386 (as of December 31, 2018) 10 ACQUISITIONS In 2018, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao Collection rigidity with malleability; opacity with translucency. As the expanded to include two new works by Alyson Shotz and artist explained, the piece takes as its starting point the Esther Ferrer. monumentality of modernist sculpture in metal, but only to reformulate its traditional role and value. While its authoritative In her work Alyson Shotz uses a broad variety of materials— weight decreases, its complexity expands dramatically. synthetic, textiles, metals—to explore our modes of perceiving space, the limits of experience, and basic physical phenomena Esther Ferrer is a pioneer of performance art in Spain, and one such as gravity, tension, and movement. The artist recently of its main representatives. Since the beginning of her career stated: “Much of my work seeks to visualize this empty space, in the late 1960s, she has developed various lines of thought as well as portraying gravity and light. I consider these natural through a wide variety of forms and materials. Ferrer’s The forces to be primary materials a sculptor can make use of.” Laughs of the World (1999/2018) was set up in 2018 for the Object for Reflection (2017) consists of countless small pieces exhibition Intertwined Spaces at the Guggenheim Museum of perforated aluminum connected by steel rings, which in Bilbao. Its main goal is to make the viewer laugh and, at the contact with light act as pixels on a screen and create a subtle same time, “listen to the laughter of the world:” children, adults and constant vibration. While the back of the work offers a and seniors from different countries and cultures laughing. multiplicity of dark shades on the metallic surface, the front For each culture, each language (some scholars believe that side acts as a highly refractive support. Object for Reflection language developed out of laughter) gives shape to laughter in thus stands as a large scale sculpture whose verticality— its own particular way. between textile and architectural—establishes a dialogue with the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao’s iconic spaces. At the same Alyson Shotz Esther Ferrer time, the work responds with intensity to the light conditions Object for Reflection, 2017 The Laughs of the