Steve McQueen has unveiled a new multimedia installation titled 66-76-26 at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, marking the renowned artist and filmmaker’s latest exploration of sound and time. The installation, which opened in October and will run through February 2027, centers on a singular musical piece: the song "Wild Is the Wind," originally composed for the 1957 film of the same name.
McQueen’s work focuses on two iconic versions of the song—Nina Simone’s 1966 rendition and David Bowie’s 1976 cover. In the gallery’s dimly lit space, the artist has separated the vocal tracks from their instrumentation and arranged them to play a cappella through speakers positioned at opposite ends of the room. The voices alternate, overlapping with slight delays, creating a layered interplay that spans three different eras—1966, 1976, and 2026.
The installation reflects a complex dialogue between the performances of Simone and Bowie, set against historical backdrops marked by social and political upheaval. McQueen describes the piece as a “duet through time,” bridging a decade’s gap between the two interpretations and inviting contemporary audiences to engage with their emotional intensity. The resulting soundscape evokes the themes of longing, love, and mourning embedded in the song’s lyrics, which McQueen characterizes as both a celebration and a requiem of love.
McQueen, a London-based artist known for blending visual and auditory elements in his films and installations, shared that he first encountered Bowie’s version of "Wild Is the Wind" in 1996. His connection deepened upon discovering Simone’s rendition, which he incorporated into his 2018 film Widows during a pivotal mourning scene. This ongoing engagement with the song’s dual nature—a poignant expression of love intertwined with grief—shaped the conceptual framework of 66-76-26.
The Guggenheim Bilbao, designed by Frank Gehry and recognized for its distinctive fish-scale façade, provides a fitting venue for McQueen’s work, which plays with themes of space, presence, and absence. McQueen praised the museum’s blend of architectural grandeur and intimate curation, noting particularly the nearby permanent installation by Richard Serra, The Matter of Time, composed of large weathering steel sculptures that coexist with a surprising sense of scale.
Visitors to the installation experience the aural tension between Bowie and Simone’s voices as they echo and entwine in the shadowed gallery space. The minimalist setting draws attention to the raw emotion conveyed through the stripped-down vocals, inviting reflection on the song’s enduring resonance over decades.
With 66-76-26, McQueen continues to probe the intersections of memory, history, and artistic expression, using a single song to evoke a layered narrative of cultural and personal significance.