Guggenheim chooses Helsinki over Taipei, Rio, and Guadalajara

Richard Armstrong

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“Helsinki was ready to start open discussions on what art museums might be in the 21st century”, says Richard Armstrong, the director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. Armstrong was explaining why Guggenheim wants to move forward with a project aimed at establishing a Guggenheim museum in Helsinki.
      “Many cities are not ready for this.”
      The Guggenheim Museum in New York is perhaps the best-known museum building in the world. Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, the building is familiar to many who have never actually been inside.
     
As Guggenheim also has museums in Venice, Bilbao, Berlin, and soon in Abu Dhabi. Cities all around the world are constantly in contact, hoping to get a new Guggenheim of their own.
      “Recently we have considered cities such as Taipei, Guadalajara, and Rio de Janeiro”, Armstrong says.
      Helsinki beat them all. No negotiations are being held with any of the other cities.
     
Of all of the places in the world, Helsinki is not necessarily the first to come to mind”, Armstrong concedes. “But there was potential in Helsinki’s initiative. I believe that the discussions that are starting now would benefit not only Helsinki, but also New York and the other Guggenheim cities.”
      “We don’t want to repeat what we have done before. Instead, we want to create something new. You have an unusual mayor. He is not afraid of the word innovation!”
     
Armstrong was also impressed by Helsinki’s plans for a new central library, where there are to be new methods of handling information, alongside traditional library operations.
      “There is readiness here for change – while respecting the past.”
      “And there is plenty of ambition in Helsinki. We like ambition.”
     
The aim in the next 12 months is to get proposals ready for further action. They will be worked on by a group of 4-5 representatives of the City of Helsinki and 3-4 from the Guggenheim Foundation.
      “Their task will be to turn a good idea into a perfect idea”, Armstrong says. He adds that proposals for what to do next will come this year, after which decisions can be made.
      “It will be a fun year.”
     
Armstrong says that museums are constantly changing. “We can see it when we look back. We don’t know what museums will be like 30 years from now, but it is exciting to start thinking about it.”
      It is only after that thinking process that building something new will be a viable idea. “A museum is a concept, not a plot of land and a building.”
      This is from a man who directs a museum which is known specifically for its eye-catching buildings.
     
In addition to the Frank Lloyd Wright building in New York, the museum buildings in Bilbao, and Abu Dhabi, designed by Frank Gehry, are local landmarks.
      “Architecture is one of the defining factors of our institution”, Armstrong admits.
     
The Guggenheim Art Museum started out modestly in 1937. A new building was commissioned in 1943, but it was not completed until 1959.
      “It took a long time to complete the building, but the end result was revolutionary. The public did not get used to the building for a long time. Actually, only now, after 50 years and two renovations, have people learned to love the museum.”
     
Richard Armstrong has directed the Guggenheim Foundation and the museum for more than two years. He clearly wants to change the American focus of the museum.
      “New York has directed the museum too much. We no longer want to be mere exporters of ideas. We want to create a free system in which everyone passes on information to everyone else. We want to be increasingly an international museum.”
     
Someday one of the tentacles of this international museum might be located in Helsinki. Where in the city, and what it would look like is something that Armstrong does not yet want to comment on.
      “For now I have been sniffing around the city and looked for clusters of interesting people, and an intersection of land and water”, Armstrong says mysteriously.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Helsinki could get its own Guggenheim (18.1.2011)

Links:
  The Guggenheim Foundation

Helsingin Sanomat