A Basque in Boise

Joseba Zulaika: The effects of the Bilbao Guggenheim Museum

Studying the effects of the Bilbao Guggenheim Museum with Joseba Zulaika in Chicago

By Etxepare Institute

2013-01-29 The anthropologist Joseba Zulaika is the teacher of the new edition of the Koldo Mitxelena Chair at the University of Chicago, which main topic is focused on “the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao: museums, arquitecture and city renewal”.The workshop began the 6th of January and will finish the 1st of February.

Zulaika will use the study of the “Bilbao Guggenheim Museum effect”to show everyone what architecture could do to change the image and the touristic appeal of a postindustrial city. In fact, the study of such “Guggenheim effects” has become mandatory in the departments of architecture, museum studies, urban renewal, or tourism.

In Zulaika´s opinion, Bilbao’s fin de millennium has become the paradigmatic example of the interdependencies between museum culture, the international art market, spectacular architecture, tourism, the politics of local identities, urban regeneration discourse, the media, late capitalist strategies, and the promotional selling of national images in a postmodern world. The approach of the course is multidisciplinary: cultural studies, anthropology, urbanism and architecture, museum and popular culture.

In addition to the workshop, Joseba Zulaika will offer two colloquiums at the University of Chicago, in the Department of Division of Humanities. The first one was held the 28 of January. Joseba Zulaika and Karlos Arregi, teacher at the University of Chicago, analyzed the Allocutive agreement and forms of address in Basque. The second one will be held today with the title “Gernika, Bilbao and the Minotaur: From Picasso to Ghery”.

The Koldo Mitxelena Chair was created by the Etxepare Basque Institute in 2012, with the aim of promoting the dissemination of Basque Studies in the American University field. The Chair is located in the Division of Humanities department at the University of Chicago and every year renowned Basque professors teach some workshops. Lourdes Oñederra, phonology professor at the University of the Basque Country, was the first visiting professor.

The Etxepare Basque Institute is also in charge of two Chairs: Bernardo Atxaga Chair at City University of New York (CUNY) and Eduardo Chillida Chair at the Goethe University (Germany).

Thanks for passing by: ↓



Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.


Confianza online