A computer simulation of Saadiyat island in Abu Dhabi, where a new Guggenheim outpost will be part of a “cultural district.” (Photo: DPA/Spiegel Online)

In a recent SPIEGEL interview, the departing director of the New York- based Guggenheim Foundation, Thomas Krenz, talks frankly about the Guggenheim’s future outpost in Abu Dhabi. Calling it the “first museum for global contemporary art” and “a truly new step in the evolution of the art museum”, he even uses the term ‘pharaonic’ to describe the vast scale of the project. The exuberant design by Frank Gehry will occupy almost 42.000 square meters and will get a $781 million budget to acquire contemporary works of art.

After telling that the Guggenheim Foundation cannot afford the convenience, the luxury, of simply copying something we already have, he cofesses that by asking Frank Gehry once more to duplicate the ‘Bilbao-effect’, the museum could get into troubles: “It’s as if you, as a director, were shooting the action film ‘Die Hard’ and then ‘Die Hard II’. By the second or third time around, it becomes more difficult to surprise people.”

However, according to Krens the project is too important for Abu Dhabi, and for the Guggenheim Foundation to fail. He defends himself against the insinuations by the SPIEGEL journalist that the museum will merely become a tourist-hub and will be just another McGuggenheim-outlet by telling that he asked Frank Gehry to design a truly unique building with the breathtaking effect of the first cathedrals in medieval times. It remains to be seen whether this analogy will work in a Middle Eastern country.

Read the entire interview (Spiegel Online, March 27, 2008)
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