Exhibitions
Aurèlia Muñoz: one hundred years of a creator who reinvented the languages of matter
A celebration throughout Catalonia to vindicate a pioneering artist between art, craftsmanship and contemporary thought.
On the occasion of the centenary of the birth of Aurèlia Muñoz (Barcelona, 1926–2011), several cultural institutions in Catalonia are joining forces to pay tribute to one of the most unique figures in 20th-century art. Over the course of a year, the region will host a wide-ranging programme of activities including exhibitions, conferences and workshops dedicated to delving deeper into her work and legacy.
The commemoration aims to highlight a career spanning more than five decades in which Muñoz developed a profoundly innovative artistic practice, today considered key to understanding the evolution of contemporary art in Catalonia and on an international scale.
A work between disciplines, materials and avant-gardes
Aurèlia Muñoz explored multiple media, with a fundamentally sculptural production that also extended to drawing and graphic practice. Her research led her to transform traditional techniques such as embroidery, knotting (macrame) or papermaking, integrating them into her own artistic language that dialogued with the avant-garde of her time.
MODEL FOR "STAR-BIRDS", 1981. ARCHIVE AURÈLIA MUÑOZ. PHOTO: ROBERTO RUIZ.
His work is characterized by the ability to establish bridges between disciplines—art, architecture, theater and engineering—and by a sensitivity that anticipates current concerns such as the sustainability of materials, the relationships between species and the poetic dimension of matter.
'Ens' as a major retrospective at MACBA and the Reina Sofía
The central focus of the Centenary is the exhibition Aurèlia Muñoz. Ens , a major retrospective co-produced by MACBA and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (MNCARS). The exhibition will be presented at both institutions between 2026 and 2027.
It can be visited at MNCARS from April 29 to September 7, 2026, while it will arrive in Barcelona later, from November 5, 2026 to March 29, 2027. Despite sharing the same exhibition corpus, each venue will offer its own reading: at MACBA, for example, a unique museography will be presented that will incorporate drawings and models from the Aurèlia Muñoz Archive, restored and previously unpublished.
ROOM VIEWS OF "BIRDS-STARS" BY AURÈLIA MUÑOZ, 2026. PHOTO: ROBERTO RUIZ.
Coinciding with the start of the commemorations, three reconstructions of the series Birds-Stars , one of the artist's most emblematic creations, can be seen in the atrium of the Meier Building of MACBA since April 13. These pieces, designed to be suspended at great height, recover their original relationship with natural light and architectural space.
An international symposium to rethink his legacy
The Centenary program will be completed with the international symposium Aurèlia Muñoz. Resonances and Confluences , which will take place at MACBA in November. The event will bring together specialists from around the world to analyze and broaden the reading of her work from different perspectives.
With this commemoration, the figure of Aurèlia Muñoz is reaffirmed as an essential voice of artistic modernity, capable of connecting tradition and experimentation, matter and thought, nature and culture.
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