The history of the CarrerasMugica gallery spans more than two decades of the world of contemporary art. Founded by Pedro Carreras and Ignacio Múgica, the gallery has become an active presence at both national and international fairs, such as ARCOmadrid, sp arte, Fiac Paris, Art Cologne, MACO… From its home base in Bilbao, CM recently decided to create a singular new space from which to lead the Basque gallery scene, sculpture in particular, internationally.
The first exhibit to be inaugurated in this new space will be held this coming October 3. It will be shown by Asier Mendizábal as the exponent of a generation of exceptional artists who are working in the Basque Country and have carried on the Basque sculptural tradition. CarrerasMugica also represents other members of this generation, including Txomin Badiola, Pello Irazu, Itziar Okariz and Xabier Salaberria. Furthermore, the gallery, since it opened its doors in 1996, has worked with Eduardo Chillida and currently represents his heirs. CM additionally shows the work of internationally renowned artists such as Rita McBride, Jessica Stockholder and Richard Serra.
With the project that Juan Herreros has carried out for the new gallery located at number 2 Heros Street, next to the Museo Guggenheim Bilbao, CarrerasMugica begins a new era. These installations of nearly 1,000 square metres will allow for a gallery that is bold and open, a new enclave within the artistic and cultural landscape of the city of Bilbao.
Description of the project by Estudio Herreros.
The project that Estudio Herreros designed for the art gallery of CarrerasMugica in Bilbao simultaneously makes three commitments: to preserve and revaluate the history and memory of the industrial structure that emerged from the patio of an urban block of the Ensanche; to maintain the architectural neutrality necessary for exhibiting art that will be the true protagonist of the space; and to build an enclave that will extend beyond its activity as a private gallery to become an integral part of the life of the city as a meeting place for all those who are interested in contemporary culture.
An old warehouse for industrial paper products that occupied the heart of this block of the Ensanche; it is entered through an enigmatic tunnel that crosses residential centres. The programme of the gallery is formed by rooms for the storage and handling of works, office and meeting areas, special spaces for experimentation and specific projects; and a large central area that acts as the principal centre of energy of the program.
The architecture makes use of only a few materials --exposed concrete structures, solid industrial floors, white walls that levitate over sunken zócalos, several pieces of furniture– to build the elemental ingredients of a gallery space –floors, walls and ceilings– in which the works of art are responsible for its definition. Basically, it is an exercise in recycling in the literal sense, of re-placing an obsolete space in the cycle of life of the city.
The consolidating element of all these ingredients is the light. Both the artificial and natural light build the space as a rigorous resource that not only adapts to each exhibit, but also sets the stage for the specific character of each project. A system of conventional fluorescent lines is combined with a reinterpretation of the original system of skylights to create a new industrial landscape on the roof of the structure; they weave together the past, the present and the future of a place that will surprise visitors each time they return.
A steel door on which a message in Morse Code can be discerned and three wall light boxes together with the prolongation of the pavement of the street into the interior, invite and arouse the visitor’s interest in entering this tunnel that is provided to the artists for their experiments and to discover what might occur at the end. What awaits recalls a public space, a great luminous plaza, the purpose of which is the display art: a room of square proportions that is organized in four “naves” separated by three beams and three pillars of recovered concrete that generate huge skylights, all ideal proportions for achieving maximum spatial lightness and a certain solemnity. The main hall is surrounded by other spaces that serve for the complementary activities of the gallery: display cabinets; the young artists’ gallery and archive; smaller rooms for showing works to guests, etc.
The new space CarrerasMugica assumes from its architecture the responsibility of the art gallery as a catalyst in the cultural scene in the heart of the city of Bilbao. As such, it aspires to be both local y global, with a variety of superimposed programs and projects in different areas that will appeal to diverse audiences. The architecture of this collection of spaces has employed its most elemental instruments in order to discreetly permit the gallery’s activity to conquer the atmosphere.
A project such as this is only possibly with the intellectual complicity and generosity of clients such as Pedro Carreras and Ignacio Múgica. A passionate conversation went on for months with them and with their artists, one at the outset of which nothing was taken for granted,
“in such a way that guided by doubt and the search for coherence between the architecture, art and the personal goals of the owners, this exciting cultural enclave has emerged".
