Moisès Villèlia

(Barcelona, 1928-1994)

Un pajarito (A Little Bird)

Polychrome bamboo with acrylic

153 x 44 x 20 cm

Inv. no. CX00833

BBVA Collection Spain



Un pajarito (A Little Bird) dates from Moisès Villèlia’s mature period, when the Catalan sculptor had already consolidated a personal language characterized by lightness and interaction with space. This mobile figure, suspended in the air and made of polychrome bamboo with acrylic, captures the essence of his sculptural poetics: rather than asserting itself, it flows, balances and dialogues with the void.

For Villèlia, bamboo is a flexible, humble and living material, ideal for suggesting movement and rhythm. In Un pajarito (A little bird), the bamboo canes are articulated through knots and tensions that evoke the fragility and freedom of flight. The polychromy introduces a playful, organic tone that reinforces the idea that, more than a static object, sculpture is a living, breathing structure transformed by light and air. The suspended work becomes a metaphor for the ephemeral: a moment held on pause that nonetheless suggests motion and continuity.

This work reflects Villèlia’s interest in integrating nature and culture. The surrounding space serves as background and, at once, as an active component of the composition, embodied as matter, while the sculpture becomes a sensory experience that transcends the purely visual.

Villèlia’s practice tends toward abstraction yet without relinquishing the organic. Un pajarito (A Little Bird) is a paradigmatic example of this synthesis: a light construction that suggests more than represents. Its mobile character introduces the dimension of time and allows the work to be completed through movement, through its interaction with air and with the gaze of the beholder.

This work is part of a series of bamboo sculptures that Villèlia developed from the late 1960s onwards, following his time in Latin America, where he discovered the expressive potential of this material.