The Guggenheim's mega greenwashing in Bilbao

Giuseppe Pennone, Nail and bay leaves (Unghia e foglie di alloro), 1989.

Glass and bay leaves © Giuseppe Penone, VEGAP, Bilbao 2025

In Bilbao, with enormous marketing resources, the Guggenheim Museum is opening a vast "Earth Arts" exhibition, celebrating soils, organic materials, and ecological imagination. Just a few dozen kilometers away, however, the same foundation is pursuing an expansion project in the heart of the Urdaibai estuary, a UNESCO biosphere reserve and protected wetland, denounced by environmentalists as a major threat to biodiversity. In other words: art is draping itself in the colors of life, while the bulldozers are being prepared.

There are journalists like that, not too discerning, who like to be embedded . Offer them the trip and the hotel, canapés and a good meal, and they come running, eager to get involved, and certainly don't overthink things. The Guggenheim Foundation obviously has the means to bribe these scribblers, who, with an added touch of morality, can travel with a clear conscience if it's to discover an exhibition " conceived as a 'reinterpretation' of the transformations of artistic practices in the face of environmental crises " and which " examines the relationship between artistic creation, soil, extraction, and ecological disruption in the so-called post-industrial Anthropocene era . " Good heavens, this is a godsend! The opening has just taken place, and the first reviews (or rather, "advertisements") should be out early next week. In fact, it's already begun: Valérie Duponchelle, art critic at Le Figaro , was naturally on the trip, and she enthusiastically shared on Instagram : " Red lips, red nails, strict elegance, Miren Arzalluz, appointed director general of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao since April 1st, is presenting in Basque this Thursday morning, December 4th, 'Lurraren Arteak', 'Artes de la Tierra', a fantastic exhibition that will be a landmark at the Guggenheim Bilbao 🌾🌿🍂. Parisians know her because she brilliantly directed the Fashion Museum at the Palais Galliera."

Isa Melsheimer, Wardian Case , 2023. Glass, potting soil, seeds, plants (installation view) © Isa Melsheimer, Bilbao 2025

Earth on display

The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao opened its " Earth Arts" exhibition on December 5th. Prepare to be amazed—it's a powerful experience! Within the museum's galleries, "Earth Arts" makes its intentions clear: contemporary artists are invited to explore the concept of soil as a living environment (with works by Giovanni Anselmo, Joseph Beuys, Jean Dubuffet, Hans Haacke, Richard Long, Ana Mendieta, Fina Miralles, Giuseppe Penone, Michelle Stuart, Tomás Saraceno, Meg Webster, and others) , natural materials are on display, and the vocabulary of ecological crisis and the Anthropocene is omnipresent. The Guggenheim Bilbao thus presents itself as a cultural player "conscious" of environmental emergencies, integrating the watchwords of sustainability into its institutional narrative. The artworks utilize clay, earth, plants, and mineral fragments; they evoke erosion, extraction, and pollution, emphasizing the fragility of ecosystems. The exhibition presents art as a potential ally of life: it is about "relearning how to inhabit the Earth," reconnecting with the soil rather than with the spectacular surfaces of architecture and globalized cities. The exhibition encourages us to reflect on this aspiration through creations that evoke the modification of the planet by human activity and the growing importance of the artificial over the natural, and invites us to renew our concern for the health of our planet, writes Ignacio S. Galán, CEO of the Iberdola Group, a strategic patron of the Guggenheim Bilbao since the museum's opening in 1997 (see below), in the press kit (see PDF below) .

Dosier-de-prensa-Artes-de-la-Tierra-FR-final-1.pdf

Download PDF • 5.72MB

Meanwhile, in Urdaibai…

Less than an hour's drive from the Guggenheim, the Urdaibai estuary tells a completely different story. A UNESCO Biosphere Reserve since 1984, a Ramsar site, a Natura 2000 area, and a crucial stopover for migratory birds, this territory is recognized as one of Europe's most precious ecosystems. Yet, it is here that the Guggenheim Foundation has been planning an extension to its Bilbao museum since the mid-2000s. But we wouldn't want to upset "contemporary art": we were practically the only ones in the entire French press to mention it (last May, HERE ). The project envisions two new museum complexes in Guernica and Murueta, linked by a six-kilometer walkway, with exhibition spaces, a restaurant, an artists' residence, and facilities for tens of thousands of additional visitors. In other words, a rise in cultural tourism in a fragile area, at the cost of transformations of the coastline, historical industrial wastelands and the ecological balance of the estuary.

The Urdaibai Biosphere Reserve. Photo from the website especes-mencaees.fr

Biodiversity versus "cultural influence"

From the outset, residents and environmental groups have denounced the project as a direct threat to Urdaibai's biodiversity: destruction or artificial alteration of wetlands, disruption of migratory birds, and increased pressure on an already vulnerable environment. The "Guggenheim Urdaibai Stop" platform, supported by major NGOs such as Greenpeace, SEO Birdlife, and WWF, emphasizes the paradox of investing public funds in a private museum extension at the heart of a protected ecosystem. For these opponents, the rhetoric of "cultural influence" masks a logic of territorial speculation and marketing. Since the publication of our article, the pressure from NGOs and wetland protection networks has intensified: environmental associations and platforms continue to appeal to Spanish authorities, international bodies, and the museum regarding the risks of destruction or degradation of the Urdaibai Biosphere Reserve (see HERE ).

Deaf to these appeals, the Guggenheim Museum, having become a global "brand," is expanding like a cultural franchise, with the same narrative for each location: art as a driver of urban regeneration, economic attractiveness, and modernization. In Urdaibai, this narrative clashes head-on with the reality of the wetlands, which need space, silence, and ecological continuity rather than iconic architecture.

Delcy Morelos, Sorcière ( Sorgin ), 2025. Earth and mud on a wooden structure © Delcy Morelos & Marian Goodman Gallery

When ecology becomes decoration

In this context, "The Arts of the Earth" cannot be interpreted as a simple thematic exhibition. It also functions as a large-scale communication strategy, designed to greenwash the image of a foundation committed to a project that threatens one of the few remaining relatively unspoiled European estuaries. The same words—biodiversity, soils, ecosystems, vulnerability—circulate between the museum's galleries and the arguments of its opponents, but to convey diametrically opposed views. The museum displays cracked soils, ravaged mining landscapes, and lands depleted by agribusiness, but says almost nothing about the very real soil on which it plans to expand in Urdaibai. Ecology thus remains confined to the symbolic realm: in the artworks, in the labels, in the press releases, but rarely in governance decisions, site selection, or the management of tourist flows.

A machine for neutralizing criticism

One of the strengths of cultural greenwashing lies precisely in its ability to incorporate criticism in order to neutralize it. The artworks depict the violence of resource extraction, the archives evoke the damage caused by productivism, and the exhibition texts speak of "repairing our connection with the living world ." But the museum continues to see itself as an engine of growth—economic, urban, and touristic—within a model that presupposes more visitors, more buildings, and more traffic. By staging the Anthropocene and the ecological crisis, the institution presents itself as lucid and responsible, while simultaneously pursuing strategies that contribute to the intensification of these very crises. The risk is that art will become the soul-sabotaging addition to a system that refuses to change: a few rooms dedicated to "Earth Arts" to better avoid questioning the role of architecture, the city, tourism, and speculation in the destruction of the environment.

The curator of the "Arts of the Earth" exhibition, Manuel Cirauqui (photo opposite), The founding director of Eina/Idea, a think tank associated with the Barcelona University Centre for Design and Art, has been working for the Guggenheim Foundation since 2016, after previously working at the Jeu de Paume in Paris and the Centre Pompidou's Institute for Research and Innovation . In none of the high-budget exhibitions he has curated so far has he explored the link between art and ecology. This has just emerged, like a mushroom.

The icing on the cake: the "Arts of the Earth" exhibition is largely funded by Iberdrola, which puts its logo everywhere, prominently displayed (only the "art clique" doesn't see it, blinded by the " red mouth, red nails, austere elegance " of the director of the Guggenheim Bilbao ...). Iberdrola is a large Spanish energy group specializing in the production, distribution, and marketing of electricity and gas, headquartered in Bilbao (and whose main shareholder is the oil-rich state of Qatar ). The company is one of the world's largest electricity producers, with a significant presence in renewables (particularly wind power, notably in Caetité, Brazil, and in Oaxaca and Puebla, Mexico, where community groups and local authorities have unsuccessfully opposed projects with harmful social and environmental impacts: land dispossession, destruction or degradation of livelihoods and crops, etc.) , but also in hydroelectricity, gas, and nuclear power. Iberdrola is regularly at the heart of ecological controversies: research and NGO work paints a picture of a "green company" present in multiple socio-environmental conflicts, particularly around hydroelectric dams and large infrastructure projects (see HERE ). In Spain, Iberdrola has also faced public criticism for its management of certain hydroelectric reservoirs, accused of creating a "false drought" by emptying the Valdecañas reservoir in Extremadura, thus necessitating the use of tanker trucks to supply water to the surrounding population. Internationally, the company heavily promotes its role as a champion of renewables and biodiversity (carbon neutrality targets, biodiversity plans, UN conventions), while remaining involved in controversial gas projects and megaprojects. In 2021, Iberdrola even sponsored COP26 in Glasgow: an investigation revealed that it was the biggest polluter (see HERE), even though sponsors were theoretically supposed to meet "rigorous sponsorship criteria" based on net-zero emissions targets (see HERE ).

Photo from the "Mixtures" series by Brazilian artist Marina Guzo, at the Arbola festival, in 2023.

on the front page of an article published at the time by the humanities .

Other ways of doing culture

In the Spanish Basque Country, however, other initiatives are sketching out a different relationship between art and nature. The Árbola festival in Navarre, for example, works on a small scale, in close dialogue with forest landscapes, local communities, and scientific knowledge, without seeking to attract massive crowds or impose a signature architectural style. The aim is not to "capitalize" on a territory, but to work with it. We were the only ones to talk about it in France, on two occasions ( HERE and HERE ). This is understandable: the association that organizes Árbola doesn't have the resources to bribe journalists, and its artistic director, Isabel Ferreira, isn't "red-mouthed and red-nailed" enough to appeal to the "cultural" elite. However, such experiences show that "earth art" is not simply about displaying works on the ground in an iconic museum, but can consist of inventing forms of culture that respect the regenerative capacity of environments, limit flows, and recognize the intrinsic value of wetlands, forests, and other deltas.

Contemporary art or a screen?

What, then, remains of the "Earth Arts" exhibition once it is placed back in its actual context? An ambitious, sometimes insightful exhibition, but one trapped within an institutional framework that instrumentalizes ecology as a language rather than a practice. As long as the Guggenheim Foundation maintains its expansion project in Urdaibai, the tribute paid to soils in the museum's galleries resembles a smokescreen: a way of declaring oneself on the side of life without renouncing a development model that continues to undermine it.

In Bilbao, contemporary art speaks of biodiversity; in Urdaibai, it is migratory birds, marshes, and wetlands that still await actions commensurate with this discourse. But "Arts of the Earth" is not so much an "exhibition" as a political marketing operation, through which the Guggenheim Foundation hopes to appease the Basque authorities, while the Spanish government has not yet given the final green light to its colonial expansion project. This is something that the embedded "art critics," who happily participate in this charade for a pittance, cannot possibly see.

Jean-Marc Adolphe and Nadia Mével

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