Sculptures in the courtyard of the Sabatini building

In the inner courtyard of the Sabatini building you can take a look at three sculptures. One is Joan Miró’s Moon Bird. Another is Alexander Calder’s Carmen. Third is by Eduardo Chillida, and is entitled Toki Egin, which, is Basque for “Make Room”. It was made with Chillida’s characteristic steel bars and it was designed in 1989 as a tribute to the Spanish mystic, St. John of the Cross. The metal structure, which weighs over nine tonnes, is an attempt to enclose a vacuum within the actual sculpture, with two crosses curving inwards to embrace and include the space around them.

The most monumental of the sculptures in the courtyard is “Carmen”, by Alexander Calder, an imposing mobile comprising a black support on top of which the mobile parts are suspended. Calder’s hallmark can be seen in the mobile red and yellow pieces at the top, which move in the wind. This 1974 work is a prime example of Calder’s predilection for large sculptures in the years before he died.

Finally, there is “Pájaro Lunar”, or Moon Bird, by Joan Miró, a black sculpture dated 1966, in which we immediately recognize the oddly-formed, curved shapes of Miró’s universe, transformed here to a three-dimensional world. The volumes and smooth black surface of the sculpture convey a faint sensation of movement, despite being firmly set on two sturdy legs.

(c) (R) 2012, MUSMon com S.L.