Stabile–Mobile

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Memory · Subcategory: Sites of memory · Year: 1970 · Authors: Alexander Calder

The I International Exhibition of Sculpture in the Street held in Santa Cruz de Tenerife in 1973 had the privilege of temporarily featuring this magnificent work by the American artist Alexander Calder (Pennsylvania, United States, 1898-New York, United States, 1976), one of the inventors of the mobile in modern art and a pioneer of kinetic sculpture.

Stabile-Mobile , made in 1970 from painted iron, represents by means of triangular metal sheets a simulation of a huge bird with a head adorned by surprising feathers that move with the air. The enormous ensemble is admirable for its simple idea of rocking according to the wind, thus creating a new configuration and therefore, almost a different work.

The installation of this splendid sculpture on a concrete pedestal on the Rambla de las Tinajas, opposite one of the most significant examples of rationalist architecture built in the Canary Islands, caused a genuine sensation in the city. Its figure, enormous and light, together with its artistic originality, immediately fitted with the urban environment where it was located. Unfortunately, after the Exhibition, the piece was returned to the Maeght Gallery in Paris, from where it had been loaned.

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