Crónica de una Seducción: El Museo Guggenheim Bilbao (review)

Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies 271 Finally, Lyman Johnson and Thomas Hall address major historiographie issues. Johnson uses statistical analysis of Argentinean probate records to question the assumed greater social mobility of frontier regions , while Hall argues that colonial frontier dynamics require modifying the tripartite economic divisions of world system theory. Many issues join these studies, including the importance of ecological sttuctures and change, the problems posed by different types of historical evidence (or the lack of historical evidence), the nature of subaltern agency, and the difficulty of balancing regional and global analyses. In this sense, a more synthetic introduction or conclusion would have been helpful, or a greater degree of dialogue among the contributors, who occasionally present contradictory intetpretations of similar data (e.g., Indian raiding). Furthermore, as the editors recognize, the comparative project of the book contains a structural limit: northern Mexico and the Southern Cone are ultimately more different than similai. The former remains a sparsely populated desert broken by difficult terrain, while the mildet climate and extensive system of navigable waterways in the RÃ-o de la Plata drainage converted the latter region into a major urban center with a strong export economy. Equally important , northern Mexico was drawn into conflict with the United States, a rising industrial power, while the Southern Cone faced territorial competition only from Portugal, a declining early modern power. Here, US westward expansion into the Great Plains may be a more illuminating comparative framework for the Southern Cone pampas. Beyond such minor shortcomings, the essays in Contested Ground open new areas and models for historicizing Spanish American border issues. Taken as a whole, these authors demonstrate the importance of detailed empirical work for understanding the fate and contributions of subaltern peoples in the Americas. Brian Gollnick University of Iowa Crónica de una Seducción: El Museo Guggenheim Bilbao Nerea, 1997 By Joseba Zulaika The root of power is desire. The transfer of that desire is seduction. These ideas underpin Joseba Zulaika's finely crafted and obsessively detailed Crónica de una seducción: El museo Guggenheim Bilbao. In this timely account ofthe marriage between a New Yoik museum and the PaÃ-s Vasco, Zulaika casts a critical eye on the secretive machinations that produced the museum Bilbao hopes will launch it into a bright 21st centuty. Thomas Krens, director of the Guggenheim Museum and the book's central character, defines a museum as "un espacio para la seducción de la incongruencia ." Following the exploits of Krens, Zulaika leads us on a dark journey within the ... incongruencia entre la estética de la realidad y los sueños de grandeza, entre la crisis económica y los actos de fe, entre estudios de viabilidad y las apuestas de futuro, entre el gran arte europeo y las artes de la manipulaci ón. (289) This is an account of art, politics, planning, and entrepreneurship in the postindustrial city. Burdened with a 272 Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies troubled manufacturing economy and reputation for separatist terrorism, Basque politicians of the late 1980s were seeking to boost Bilbao's economy and image. Across the Atlantic, Krens had launched his museum into a set of costly expansions. The Guggenheim was badly in debt and searching for new capital and exhibition space. Through a series of secretive contacts, the two parties were introduced, beginning the process of mutual "seduction." But, as Zulaika shows, what was mutual quickly became lop-sided; Krens came to easily manipulate the desperate regional officials. Away from die media glare, or even the scrutiny of public debate, the PaÃ-s Vasco agreed to construct and maintain a museum for art it would never own. The building, designed by American architect Frank Gehry, would cost a fortune. Furthermore, the Basques would have to pay a $20 million "franchise fee" to the Guggenheim. In exchange for a new museum, the PaÃ-s Vasco would be a subject for Krens's innovative experiment: the first franchised art museum, what Zulaika derisively calls the "McGuggenheim ." While culture's role in postindustrial urban renewal has received considerable attention —within geography, political economy, planning, architecture, cultural studies—diis is one ofthe most detailed empirical studies to...