The Bilbao Effect: Ethical Symbolic Representation
The Bilbao Effect: Ethical Symbolic Representation
This chapter argues that the origins, context, and form of Frank Gehry constitute an ethical strategy of symbolic representation for tourists on a grand scale. The Guggenheim Bilbao is the embodiment of creative risk taking, human exigency, and persistence in the face of uncertainty. Gehry's building is not superficially referential or casually symbolic in the way a Disney cartoon house is symbolic. Gehry's building rigorously and accurately models the structure of the symbol itself. Today, tourists who visit Spain think about going to Bilbao and express disappointment if they miss it. The people of Bilbao, even those who were displaced to make room for the museum, take pride in it and embrace it as their own. The initial design for the Guggenheim Bilbao was originally sketched for a Disney project. The Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles might have been first to receive this symbolic treatment.
Keywords: Frank Gehry, Guggenheim Bilbao, symbolic representation, Disney, tourists, Spain
California Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs, and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.
