Guggenheim vs. Helsinki. Two Competitions for a Museum

The agreement reached between the City of Helsinki and the Guggenheim Foundation to explore the feasibility of building a new museum prompts an architectural competition to be held between June 2014 and June 2015. For the first time in its history, the American institution presents an open call, with 1,715 entries from 77 different countries. But the official competition triggers a second, alternative competition. In September 2014, several independent organizations linked to the art world launched The Next Helsinki with the aim of questioning the implementation of the Guggenheim.While The Next Helsinki proposes a cultural model linked to the city and the everyday life of its inhabitants, the American foundation’s commitment implies claiming tourism and globalization as a substantial part of the Finnish economy. Thus, from the Guggenheim Helsinki as a case study –with its double reading as an official and alternative competition– emerges the conflict not only between two antagonistic museum projects but also between two visions of the city in economic, political and social terms. The global is opposed to the local. And this struggle is visualized through architecture.