Sight Name: Guggenheim Museum
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Intro: One of the Guggenheim Foundation's five major museums in the world (and like the other four), the Guggenheim Bilbao is more famous for the boldness of the building's architecture than for the collections it houses. The latter, however, are major attractions, combining serious cultural didacticism with popularizing demystification, in other words, they are both enjoyable and edifying and a visit to Bilbao's Guggenheim is a must for anyone visiting the north-east of Spain.
Body of the text: The Guggenheim Bilbao's building is the most famous work of Canadian-born architect Frank Gehry and is undeniably impressive. It is huge when seen from the opposite side of the river, but merely large when you approach the entrance from the street. Its lack of flat surfaces makes it sinuous, and though it looks boat-shaped, its gleaming titanium panels suggest something fishy. It was opened to the public in 1997, and has been one of the main factors bringing tourism to the previously depressed, post-industrial city of Bilbao.

Inside, the Guggenheim is arranged around a central, luminous, ceiling-less vestibule. The building's different storeys all emanate from this same space. The "permanent" collection is displayed in different rooms on the ground floor, the most popular part being an exhibition called "The Matter of Time," by minimalist sculptor Richard Serra. This consists of a series of works which are large geometrical figures, spirals and elipses, made out of very large steel plates, and through which visitors pass as they would a labyrinth. The plates are so placed that the eye finds neither straight lines nor right angles, and the effect is disturbing, thought-provoking or, if you are one of the kids running around as if you were in a playground, just fun.
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