Coinciding with the start of the Aurèlia Muñoz Centenary, three reconstructions of sculptures from the artist’s emblematic Birds-kites series have been installed in the Atrium of MACBA. Muñoz conceived the works to be installed high-up and in dialogue with natural light: conditions that are faithfully reproduced in the current presentation.

Originally made in the early 1980s, at that time the pieces were exhibited at the Palacio de Cristal in Madrid, the Drassanes Reials in Barcelona and as part of the 11th Lausanne International Textile Biennial. Muñoz’s intention was for the works to hover over places and people, creating the sensation of expanded space both outdoors and inside large buildings. At MACBA, these works will occupy the Atrium of the Meier Building for much of the commemorative year, before travelling to different venues throughout Catalonia.

Born Aurèlia Muñoz Ventura in Barcelona on 13 April 1926, she dedicated more than five decades to artistic practice in multiple media and is recognised today as one of the key figures for understanding the evolution of contemporary art. This commemoration highlights the pioneering and visionary role of an artist whose work, primarily sculptural but also encompassing painting and drawing, explored and renewed ancestral techniques such as embroidery, macramé and papermaking, engaging in dialogue with the artistic avant-gardes of her time, while simultaneously forging connections between disciplines such as art, architecture, theatre and engineering. Her work reveals a committed world view that anticipated ecological and social concerns such as material sustainability and interspecies relationships, as well as highlighting the importance of diversity and poetics as links between artistic production and life.

The production and installation are carried out by MACBA with the support of the Generalitat de Catalunya, the Aurèlia Muñoz Archive, and the collaboration of Casa Batlló Contemporary. The installation also establishes a symbolic dialogue with the work of Antoni Gaudí in the year of the centenary of his death.