I received an e-mail recently from an Austrian artist friend, Kasper Kovitz. He’s been spending some time in Spain and was sending his hellos from Bilbao, where that not-so-good collection is displayed inside the Frank Gehry Guggenheim. He was thinking of the city’s expansion since that molded metal masterpiece of architectural invention was completed. He was telling me that the urban planning of the town was right up there with cities of the Persian Gulf like Abu Dhabi and Dubai. “It’s an interesting city, between beautiful and gritty and obviously very successful at reinventing itself through signature buildings,” he explained. It’s interesting how significant architectural feats can unite and alter a city and at the same time separate it from its own cultural history and still be widely acceptable. It feels like we’re living in a time where new architecture has no connection to a culture or time period. The most extreme visions, ie. Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim in Bilbao, of the future are planted and rooted into a city richer and older than any Los Angeles intersection could ever imagine. Somehow the building is allowed to grow and while it may never blend aesthetically, it does find a way to become accepted by the people who live and work around it, even if they hate it at first. I can only imagine what people will think about our culture hundreds of years from now. Were we the culture that simply experimented and tinkered with history, turning cities upside-down, essentially making anything and everything acceptable?
“I enjoy learning more about the Basque culture, which is independent and proud, yet enterprising and prone to exploration and capitalism. They are some of the oldest people of Europe, with a unique language, the first whalers that ruled the world seas until they sold out that technology and since they weren’t a nation, subsequently lost the fishing rights. But they seem to be able to always reinvent themselves. And they had a mass exodus over the years all over the world but particularely to the Amercian continent, Argentinia, Chile, Boise, Idaho… Pesons as diverse as the dictator Pinochet and Panch Villa were of Basque origin. For me their role in the exploration of America is the most interesting,” Kasper continues.
I wonder if my ancestors were of the Basque people. I think this idea of reinvention and prosperity is strongly engrained into most American people and if it’s not, it will be someday.
Kasper Kovitz is currently working on a series of paintings on paper of images of galleons at sea and conquistadors landing, like the ones used for little children in school. “I am using ox blood to paint (there’s a color called rouge basque, which was originally made using ox blood) and a tropical fruit juice mix for the Indians.”
