After strolling through 2000 years of architectural history represented  by dozens of palaces, forts and, of course, churches, it is refreshing to behold one of the 21st century’s coolest buildings: Frank Gehry’s masterpiece, The Guggenheim Bilbao.

You can tell from the picture that this is no ordinary building, and it is no ordinary museum. Crafted from limestone and titanium, it undulates on the outside, flows on the inside and provides an almost perfect space for viewing art.  I know of no other art space that offers the interior volume to do justice to Richard Serra’s massive “Matter of Time” sculptures.  (Maybe the Tate Modern, but I doubt those floors could hold the weight.) Matter of Time is fantastic. Gigantic coils and passageways made of 14-foot-high steel, as much as 50 feet long. Wonderful to walk through and create echos. Not sure this was Serra’s plan, but we made them interactive.

The building has floor-through spaces, and tiered galleries that offer viewing positions form each of its three floors.  There are electronic kiosk terminals that dispense information about the art you are looking at as well as what is where and what remains to be seen.

I didn’t care what was on the walls, I came for the building itself. So it was with great good luck that we stumbled upon a massive show of Cai Guo Qiang, the Chinese artist whose primary medium is gunpowder.  Cai’s work is sort of a cross between Christo and Anselm Keifer.  It is environmental, kinetic performance art, that includes social participation, and is political at the same time.  He uses exploding fireworks as a metaphor for human dynamism and social change, and his work… Rocks! Check his website here.

Sorry. Couldn’t photograph at all inside the gallery, so this exterior shot has to do.  Buy his book. I’m going to.  Tried in the gift store but it was in Spanish.  Mine’s getting better, but not good enough.