The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao has opened 66–76–26, a new installation by British artist and filmmaker Steve McQueen, on view from October 9, 2026 until February 21, 2027. Conceived specifically for the museum, the work stages an encounter between two a cappella recordings of the song 'Wild Is the Wind' — Nina Simone's 1966 interpretation and David Bowie's 1976 cover — separated in space inside a darkened gallery.

The title compresses the three years that give the installation its logic: the two recordings, made a decade apart, and 2026, the year McQueen brings them together. Stripped of their instrumentation, the voices emerge from opposite sides of the room, and visitors moving through the space hear the two performances unfold as an imagined duet. There is no film and no screen; the architecture of the room itself becomes the medium, and listening becomes the whole encounter.

McQueen first encountered Bowie's recording in the mid-1990s and later discovered Simone's version, returning to the song over the decades for its emotional complexity and its refusal to settle into a single meaning — part love song, part lament, part declaration of longing. The installation continues his long-standing engagement with history, identity and the physical conditions of viewing.

Curated by Lekha Hileman and sponsored by Occident, the show is installed in the museum's gallery 105 as part of its autumn programme. Its opening coincided with the museum's 29th anniversary celebrations, which offered free admission across the weekend of October 17 and 18, giving first audiences a chance to encounter the new work at no cost.