BILBAO, SPAIN.-An installation by Richard Serra is presented today at Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. These works will join the artist's 1996–97 work Snake in gallery 104 (the so-called "Fish" gallery) of the Frank Gehry-designed museum, creating a site-specific installation of a scale and ambition unrivalled in modern history. The sculptures will make the museum a required destination for anyone seeking the most concentrated experience possible of this renowned artist’s extraordinary and innovative work.

Funds for the commission are provided by the Basque Government and Bizkaia Provincial Council as part of their commitment to form the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao Collection, which focuses on art from the postwar period.

At a press conference in Bilbao announcing the commission, Mr. Serra stated, "This is a commission by the Guggenheim Bilbao, for the Guggenheim Bilbao, and for the people in Bilbao."

The Installation - Richard Serra is renowned for his challenging and groundbreaking work, which focuses on the production process, the specific characteristics of his materials, and the integration of the spectator into the sculptural space. Mr. Serra is widely considered to be one of the greatest sculptors of the Modern era.

In preparing the Bilbao installation, the artist created 1:12 scale models (1 inch = 1 foot) of the sculptures, which he has placed in the configuration he has planned for the Fish gallery. The models and the artist's commentary on them provide a unique way to visualize the future installation, and to attempt to anticipate the physical and psychological impact that it will have on viewers.

Each of the works is comprised of two or more bent plates of weatherproof steel, with heights ranging from 12 to 14 feet. The lightest work, made of two plates, weighs 44 tons; the heaviest, made of eight plates, weighs 276 tons. The total weight of the new works, which will be manufactured in Germany, will be 1,034 tons.

The Bilbao installation utilizes forms from Mr. Serra's recent series of Torqued Ellipses, expanding on the vocabulary he has used throughout his career, while going further to articulate the potential for movement in his works and his exploration of the physicality of space.

The installation is designed to enable the spectator to perceive the evolution of the works, from the basic form, an ellipse, to the most complex, a spiral. On entering the gallery, the spectator immediately penetrates the space of the sculpture. Moving through the entire length of the gallery, the spectator is immersed in the overall experience and, following the sequence of the works, becomes familiar with the artist's increasingly elaborate vocabulary. At the start of the journey, a simple, large ellipse houses a smaller one inside, thereby creating a double ellipse. The interior of one ellipse touches the outer plates of another, generating a spiral whose inner space cannot be anticipated from the outside. The last two works are built from sections of tori and spheres to create environments with differing effects on the viewer's movement and perception. Shifting in unexpected ways as viewers walk in and around them, these sculptures create a dizzying, unforgettable sensation of space in motion.

Mr. Serra has placed each work in accordance with the architecture that houses it, paying special attention to the possibility of viewing the interior of some of the works from the balcony on the second floor. The works respond to the architectural details of the gallery, such as the sweeping arches and skylight overhead, integrating Mr. Gehry's vision into the flow of force and movement. As Mr. Serra says, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is "the only place in the world where I could do an installation like this."