A museum ship, virtual reality and Miró engravings, the Art Explora Festival arrives at Port Vell

BarcelonaThe Art Explora Festival opened its doors this Wednesday at the Barcelona dock, in Port Vell, for its first stop in Catalonia. The event, which will run until April 6, offers free admission – with prior reservation to access the museum ship – and can be visited daily from 10:00 AM to 10:00 PM, with the last entry at 7:45 PM.

Located next to the World Trade Center in Port Vell, the festival transforms this area of the port into an open cultural space that combines exhibitions, immersive experiences, and live activities.

Promoted by the French non-profit cultural foundation Art Explora, the project was born with the aim of bringing art to all audiences, especially those who do not usually cross the doors of cultural institutions. “At Art Explora, we are convinced that art is essential. Art allows us to know ourselves better and to better understand the world around us. And what we see in all countries around the world is that, ultimately, it is always the same people who dare to cross the doors of cultural institutions and it is always the same ones who never believe them”, explained Agnès de T’Serclaes, deputy director of the foundation. In this regard, the ship's itinerancy is key: “We are committed to mobility as a wonderful way to reach people where they live, this is the heart of the device we want to present. The Art Explora Festival goes from port to port, from city to city, and in less than two years it has visited eleven different cities in the Mediterranean Sea”.

The range of activities is broad and immersive. One of the outstanding proposals is a sound journey created by the scientific department of the Pompidou Museum, which combines sounds of the Mediterranean, from the waves of Santorini to the horns of Naples. On the same ship, a virtual reality experience designed by the French video game company Ubisoft is also offered, in which those over 10 years old can travel to different historical moments, such as 15th-century Venice, Roman-era Alexandria, or ancient Athens.

Three routes

The festival is structured into three main pavilions. The first offers an immersive 3D journey through the history of women in art under the name Present. The second, dedicated to photography and moving images, brings together the work of twenty artists from the Arab world who address themes such as exile, immigration, and hospitality, with a strong presence of emerging creators offering diverse perspectives on these realities. In the central pavilion, the exhibition Under the Azure explores the relationship with the sea and its depths, featuring works by emerging artists as well as paintings by Joan Miró (the series Gens de la mer, a series of prints by the Catalan painter, can be seen), the monumental sculpture by Marguerite Humeau The Dead and underwater films by Jean Painlevé. At each level, the exhibition also includes a piece from a local collection, in this case, a work of archaeological ceramics on loan from the Museum of Archaeology of Catalonia.

Furthermore, the program includes music, performances, and DJ sets that combine local and international artists. All these proposals share a common thread: experiences of displacement and migration, whether in the first person or as a family legacy. The creations reflect on identity, the transit between cultures, and coexistence between different worlds, especially between North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Europe, and offer a space for collective expression on a shared reality in the contemporary Mediterranean.