'Like a Starling Murmuration'. MACBA Collection: Thirty Years and Infinite Ways of Being Exhibition
28 November 2025 – 28 September 2026 · 11:00
Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, el Raval, Ciutat Vella
They fly in groups. Hundreds of thousands of birds move together across the winter sky. In a precise choreography they stretch and contract, glide and rise, forming huge clouds; this is what we know as a "starling murmuration". No one can predict their movements; in fact, not even the birds themselves know where they will fly in the next few seconds. In a true aerial ballet, few birds display such perfect synchrony in flight. Through these aerial dances we approach the MACBA Collection in two direct ways: celebrating its thirtieth anniversary and reflecting on contemporary processes of subjectivation. Just as the synchronous, choral movement of starlings —known in English as a "murmuration", evoking the murmur accompanying their flight— creates volatile, changing images, the works in the collection likewise adjust and regroup in their different presentations, forming knots or maps of meaning. The museum's 30th anniversary invites a measured reflection, a pause to look at the past on which MACBA's present has been built and revisit its trajectory. A kind of tribute, but also a critical review of the threads that have woven the museum as it exists today. Since its beginnings, the…
Part of the programme: MACBA's Thirtieth Year. L’Any Trenta del MACBA: 7 activities in Barcelona, from November 27 to March 29.
Source: Ajuntament de Barcelona · checked on 8 September 2026