Exhibitions
Antoni Muntadas and the Tasmanian tiger: art, memory and extinction
The artist receives the 2025 City of Barcelona Award for an installation that dialogues with science and the collective imagination within the Invisible Animals exhibition at the Museum of Natural Sciences.
Antoni Muntadas has been recognized with the 2025 City of Barcelona Award in the Art and Science category for the project Tasmanian Tiger: Case Study of the Museum of Extinction . It is an installation that is part of the exhibition Invisible Animals , currently on display at the Museum of Natural Sciences. The work, produced by the New Art Foundation, was initially presented at Ars Electronica 2022, with the collaboration of the Institut Ramon Llull.
Muntadas' work is situated in the conceptual territory that connects extinction and deextinction, and takes as its central axis the Tasmanian tiger (Thylacinus cynocephalus), one of the most iconic figures among the so-called invisible animals. Despite its appearance —similar to that of a striped dog— it was a carnivorous marsupial that officially became extinct in 1936.
The awards ceremony is scheduled for February 11, 2026, at the Saló de Cent of Barcelona City Council.
Muntadas' interest in this species dates back to 1993, during a stay in Australia. The discovery of the face of the Tasmanian tiger on a beer label acted as a trigger for a research that explores how an extinct animal can continue to be present in visual culture and the collective imagination. No one has seen it again, but its figure persists, suspended between memory, myth and symbolic representation.
Invisible Animals Exhibition at the Barcelona Museum of Natural Sciences
The Barcelona Museum of Natural Sciences is responsible for producing the exhibition Invisible Animals: myth, life, extinction, deextinction, a proposal that invites us to reflect on those species that escape our gaze. The exhibition brings together animals that no longer exist —such as dinosaurs, dodos or the Tasmanian tiger—, beings that only inhabit the collective imagination of various cultures —mermaids, dragons or yetis—, and living but almost invisible species, either due to their elusive behavior, such as the giant squid, or due to the impact of human action, such as the Montseny newt.
To bring this universe of hidden animals closer to the public, the exhibition —which can be visited until January 10, 2027— is committed to a multidisciplinary museography that combines the Museum's natural science collections with artistic creations from very diverse origins. The exhibition integrates languages such as conceptual art, painting, sculpture, music, photography, illustration, comics, tattoos, cinema and literature, among others.
Among the thirty participating artists stand out figures such as the actor Viggo Mortensen, the photographers Joan Fontcuberta and Txema Salvans, the conceptual artists Antoni Muntadas and José Luis Viñas, the muralist Lily Brick, the musician Rafel Plana, the filmmaker Víctor Matellano, the specialist in electronic art Vicente Matallana and the tattoo artist Paola Garmo, setting up a creative mosaic that expands the scientific view with poetic and symbolic perspectives.
