Miren Arzalluz, the art of leaving without ever parting
Miren Arzalluz:
the art of leaving without ever parting
Text: Oier Aranzabal Photos: Guggenheim & James Weston
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“Revolution is the harmony of form and color and everything exists, and moves, under only one law = life”
– Frida Kalho
Miren Arzalluz is passionate about art. After obtaining a PhD in History from the University of Deusto, in the Basque Country, she continued her studies in Art History at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London. This marked the beginning of a career characterised by constant movement and incessant travel, driven by the changing currents of art and culture. She became chief curator of the Balenciaga Museum and, after a year at the helm of the Etxepare Euskal Institutua, took over as director of the fashion museum, Palais Galliera – Musée de la Mode in Paris. After seven years in the French capital, she returned to the Basque Country to head the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. In reality, this return is only symbolic, because no matter how far away she may have travelled, she never really left.
Miren Arzalluz’s gaze is firmly focused on the Basque Country, but her eyes are wide open to the world. She sees culture as a fabric that shapes society, whether in the form of a Balenciaga dress or a painting that depicts a new world, like the work of Bilbao painter Antonio Gezala, Frida Kahlo or the YOU exhibition by Vito Acconci and Sergio Prego, which she is curating (on display until September 2025). For her, culture is above all a language: a means of communicating, asking questions and even finding answers.
At the Musée de la Mode in Paris, she succeeded in highlighting intimate stories through clothes: a revolution in the complex labyrinth of identities and dreams. Balenciaga, Chanel, Dior, Margiela – all artists who express themselves through textures, silhouettes, and space. Arzalluz manages to combine art and humanity like no other. She knows that belonging to the Basque people and being a global citizen are two sides of the same coin. In addition to being a leading figure in the contemporary art world, she is taking on the role of director of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao with a clear desire to strengthen ties with the Basque art scene.
Miren Arzalluz weaves art and society, the past and the future, local and global with the same thread.
In an era marked by growing tensions between the United States and Europe, the bridge built between New York, Bilbao and Venice by the Guggenheim Museum is of paramount importance. “I want to believe that culture is an area that offers us a little freedom,” says Arzalluz. “It is clear that the political context will have a major impact on cultural entities in the United States.”
In dark times, the indispensable role of culture and cultural institutions in society becomes all the more evident: “One of the options that culture offers us is resistance,” she says. For Arzalluz, the museum is not a business, but a living organism, a space for ongoing dialogue.
Miren Arzalluz weaves art and society, the past and the future, local and global with the same thread. “I have just taken up my new position. I am currently in discussions with the various teams, but we will soon be announcing our main plans for the future,” she explained during her first official appearance as director.
It is no surprise that her career has been a veritable patchwork of fashion, art, culture and identity. And for her, this arrival at the Guggenheim is not a culmination, but a new starting point. Arzalluz, true to herself, is on the move, always ready to take on new challenges.
