Ricardo Romero: The Cat and the Wind Sculpture in Setúbal, Portugal
Two years after the much loved cat debut in Leiria and now a cultural landmark, Ricardo Romero’s cat resurfaced, not as a replica, but as a rebirth. The artist installed O Gato e o Vento (The Cat and the Wind) on the roof of the Casa do Turismo in Praça do Bocage, Setúbal. The same feline form, cast in acrylic resin, measuring 3.8 metres long and 2.3 metres high entered a new conversation with space, air, and light.
Image copyright Ricardo Romero
Here, near the Atlantic coast, the cat’s movement is the same, the lifted paw, the lean of the body, with the tension of forward motion. The sculpture interacts with its surroundings, not just visually but atmospherically. The same being that once walked the rooftops of Leiria now wanders Setúbal, its posture unchanged but its presence transformed.
Image copyright Ricardo Romero
Romero’s decision to re-situate the same cat in a new landscape underscores his fascination with continuity through change. The work becomes a traveller, a kind of visual pilgrim moving between cities, carrying its quiet mythology.
Image copyright Ricardo Romero
In Setúbal, the cat stands for motion, curiosity, and freedom. It is the same cat, yet entirely reborn, a perfect embodiment of Romero’s poetic philosophy: that art, like the wind, can never truly stay still.
Watch the YouTube video here.