On the ground floor of the Guggenheim Museum, a mile or so from the stadium where the Europa League final takes place on Wednesday evening, they show a contemporary film and video exhibition, a collaboration between Basque and Italian artists.
Crowds or visitors enter the exhibition space in the dark, strangers bump into each other while waiting for the video, people walk against the walls while they are getting through the darkness and starting to wonder how they will ever get out.
When the films start, they have a nightmare -like quality. A man in sunglasses, his image faded and grainy, always gives his right. On another screen, a man moans and then buzzes a dissonant tune that gets quickly and angry. Finally the voice of a man. “You are not ready to see this yet,” it says.
Someone in the Guggenheim knew that Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur clearly came to the city. They knew that Ruben Amorim and Ange Postecoglou, managers tortured by the mediocreiveness of their teams, would also bring their suffering to them.
Perhaps they knew that Postecoglou would be in a press conference by Tuesday evening, furious with the suggestion that he would be rejected as a clown if losing spurs. Perhaps they knew that Amorim, who has a preference for self -lagging, would answer more questions about the dismissals of staff and small cuts at Old Trafford who contributed to the grim story of the United season.
At one level is what is approaching here in this beautiful city in the Basque Country, a final with absurdly high commitment that promises redemption or downfall for the lost souls of English football. And on another it is a collision of the damned.
United and Spurs have been so bad this season – they are 16th and 17th in the Premier League – that it is difficult to know if they should be proud, two English teams have reached a large European final, or to be ashamed.
Statistically, they are in terms of their collective current positions in one of the top five competitions in Europe the worst two teams ever to appear in a European final. With a nod to the host country, some mention this collision El Crapico, although it would have lasted a brave journalist to mention that to Postecoglou. Nobody did it.
So is this heaven or is this hell? What does it say about the imbalance in European football that has been created by the financial power of the English top flight that two parties can reach this final as thoroughly and deeply and deeply as United and Spurs?
The Spurs and United fans who have made all kinds of great Odysseys to come here, ferries from Plymouth to Santander or Portsmouth to Bilbao, aircraft to Biarritz or Toulouse or Madrid or Barcelona or Porto, and trains and renting cars will give the trips to the trips.
What both sets of supporters know is that by the end of the game in this beautiful stadium on the banks of the Nervion River, one of their teams is looking forward to playing in the Champions League next season and the other will drown in spot and despair.
So they enjoy it as long as they can. When the Spurs -Teamus arrived in Bilbao on Tuesday, it was followed around the Plaza del Sagrado Corazon de Jesus to sing by fans. Those songs even infiltrated Guggenheim.
United fans were also in force here on Monday evening, singing and carousing in the older part of the city that rises from the banks of the river to the steep hills that stare at Bilbao. They have tasted Glory more recently than Spurs, but the fall of their team from the grace has been even more surprising.
The pressure is intense for both managers. So much drives on the final that it is difficult to know whether both will survive the defeat by the other. Part of the comparison is money. The Root of Champions League qualification means that the victory is worth more than £ 100 million for the winner.
Victory means a higher caliber of signing sessions in the summer. Victory means an opportunity to end the pain. Victory means the glimpse of an upward route.
Defeat does not stop. It means a season without European competition. It means that the income is greatly reduced. It means fine payments to disappointed sponsors. It means losing more and more territory at the top sides of the Premier League and going further and further from the European elite.
Especially for traces, victory means a chance to change the mocking story that goes to them. You know the stuff that I mean: the joke about 'Doctor Tottenham will now see you' focusing on the capacity of the club to cure the ailments of others by losing them, the invention of the adjective 'Spursy' that describes the ability to defeat the defeat from the jaws of victory.
They have not won a trophy since they lifted the League Cup in 2008. They have not won a European trophy since they defeated Anderlecht to win the UEFA Cup in 1984. “This game is the chance to change the history of our club and the mentality,” said the Spurs Captain Son Heung-Min when Tottenham started their training session in the San Mames.
The only thing that is at stake on Wednesday evening, so perhaps it was no surprise that Postecoglou reacted so angry when he appeared yesterday for his press conference and was asked about flirting with shame by a reporter, who recently speculated in his newspaper that some would drive him a clown if spurs lost.
“That depends on your prospects,” Postecoglou spits back, “but I will tell you one thing, regardless of tomorrow, I am not a clown and that will never be. You really disappointed me that you used such a terminology to describe a person who has worked up for 26 years, without any favors of someone, to a position in which he leads a club in a European final.
“To suggest that we are not successful in one way or another, I am a clown, I am not sure how to answer that question.”
When Amorim sat down on the same stage a few hours later, he cut a completely more relaxed figure while sitting between Bruno Fernandes and Harry Maguire. Fernandes even felt able to joke at the expense of Amorim when the manager was asked why it was that he was not as much pressure as Postecoglou. “He is,” Fernandes said with a naughty smile. Amorim laughed. “He wants my job,” said the United Baas.
Amorim has tried to play the broader importance of the result. For example, the club said that they will not have an open-top bus parade if they win tonight. A barbecue has been proposed instead.
“There are many problems we have to solve in this club and they will not be solved by winning a cup,” Amorim said.
Spurs has the advantage that they have already defeated three times this season, at home, at home and away in the Premier League and also in the Carabao Cup. But they also have to deal with the issue that three of their best players – James Maddison, Lucas Bergvall and Dejan Kulusevski – are out of injury.
Perhaps their absence were good for the dark mood of Postecoglou. His biting sarcasm was never far from the surface and it came up again when he was asked a question about his future.
“I keep winning trophies until I'm done, wherever that is,” he said. 'Don't worry about my future, size. Not stress, size. Sleep easily. '
The truth is that few will easily rest for this game. It's too big. It's all or nothing. While Amorim and Postecoglou and their players went back to their hotels, the blurry images of ghostly men still vibrated across the scenes in the Guggenheim. And those voices are still angry in the darkness.