In counterpoint to the city of the architects (a somewhat demagogic phrase used by the expo), the street. “Bertan Bilbao / Proyecto Bilbao” (The Bilbao Project) aims to take the general public’s space into the museum. Architecture triumphs in its everyday uses. Therefore, it is important to raise awareness about a city that has been able to grow beyond the building which, converted into a monument, has brought it back to life. The public’s reconquest shows that, above politicians, managers, architects, real estate companies, it is the people who make the city vibrate, those with no authority, who eventually have their say. Those who inject life into their most direct environment. Without the use people make of it, architecture becomes a mausoleum. Bilbao’s outlying and central districts, however, show how the city’s famous transformation surpasses the reputation of its international museum and holds its own in the street.
Like cities and society, architecture is going through a period of transformation. While architects have traditionally protested about the lack of understanding, the distortion and even the deformation their proposals are subjected to by the public at large, Bilbao is showing how this process can be reverted. Here, the measure of architecture is everyday life. The city has transformed itself, and so has everyday life. And like society itself, architecture has opened up, it has broken its inbreeding and it lives a better, a more meaningful existence.
The exhibition "Proyecto Bilbao" consists of 30 photographs commissioned the photographer Iñigo Bujedo Aguirre, a video created by Iñigo Salaberría about life in the underground of Bilbao and the projection of historical images of the city of Bilbao. It also includes the screening of documentaries under the title "Bilbao: urban and social transformation", that AlhóndigaBilbao selected in collaboration with the Basque Film Archive, a series of lectures and educational project and participation.
Venue: La Alhóndiga, Leisure and Cultural Center. Arriquibar Square, 4. Bilbao, Spain.
Date: from October 5, 2012 to January 13, 2013.
