Three exhibitions extend La Mar de Músicas in Cartagena until the end of September

The 31st edition of La Mar de Músicas ended its concerts on 25 July, but the festival remains present in Cartagena throughout the summer through La Mar de Arte, its section dedicated to the visual arts. The three exhibitions scheduled for 2026 remain open to the public until the end of September, extending the cultural dialogue of an edition that has had Ecuador as its guest country.

The exhibitions introduce the public to contemporary Ecuadorian art, the work of artists linked to Cartagena and a selection of works by one of the great names in 20th-century Latin American art: Oswaldo Guayasamín. The projects address issues such as identity, belonging, memory, rootedness, urban transformation and a humanist perspective on suffering and dignity.

‘Los de aquí’: identity and belonging

One of the main projects in La Mar de Arte is ‘Los de aquí’, which can be visited at the Palacio Consistorial in Cartagena until 27 September. The exhibition is curated by María Garberí and Pepo Devesa and begins with a central question: “what does it mean to be from here?”.

The exhibition reflects on belonging, identity and rootedness through the experience of the Ecuadorian community in Cartagena and the Region of Murcia. To this end, it brings together works created across different disciplines, including painting, photography, sculpture, installation and video art.

‘Los de aquí’ establishes a dialogue between contemporary Ecuadorian artists and the experiences of those who have built part of their lives in Cartagena and the Region of Murcia. The exhibition brings together works by Roberto Rivadeneira, Dia Muñoz, Nebraska Flores, the Zooa collective, CMAL, Azul Macas, Pamela Suasti and Alexandra Cuesta, alongside the work of Cartagena artist Adrián Madrid.

The project understands identity as a reality that does not remain still, but is constructed through movement, affection, memory and new places that come to be considered home. From this perspective, the exhibition connects contemporary Ecuadorian artistic creation with a reality close to Cartagena, where the community from Ecuador has been part of the city’s social, economic and cultural life for decades.

The result is a perspective that goes beyond the concept of migration to address issues such as belonging, coexistence and the different ways of feeling part of a place. The works brought together thus reflect on the bonds created between people and territories, and on how personal experiences transform the perception of home.

‘Distrito’ and the view of the city

The La Mar de Arte 2026 programme also includes ‘Distrito’, by artist Salvi Vivancos. The exhibition is curated by Enric Mira and focuses on territory, the city and its transformations through the language of contemporary art.

In this exhibition, Vivancos turns the urban landscape and its margins into artistic material. His work focuses on spaces, architecture, signs and everyday elements that usually go unnoticed, and proposes another way of observing the city and its surrounding environment.

‘Distrito’ also reflects on how the territory people inhabit eventually becomes part of their identity. The exhibition invites visitors to pause and look at those components of the urban landscape that form part of daily life and which, precisely because of their constant presence, are often overlooked.

With this project, La Mar de Arte also maintains one of its commitments in recent years: to give visibility to creators linked to Cartagena. Salvi Vivancos’s work thus becomes part of a programme that combines an international perspective on Ecuador with contemporary art connected to the city’s surroundings.

The graphic work of Oswaldo Guayasamín

The third exhibition is dedicated to Oswaldo Guayasamín, one of the great figures of 20th-century Latin American art. The exhibition brings together a selection of the Ecuadorian artist’s graphic work, whose career was marked by his commitment to humanity and by a critical perspective on injustice, inequality and suffering.

Guayasamín’s presence takes on special significance within an edition of La Mar de Músicas dedicated to Ecuador. His artistic universe, characterised by the expressiveness of faces and hands and by a profound humanist concern, made the Quito-born creator one of the Latin American artistic voices with the greatest international reach.

The exhibition provides an opportunity to explore some of the key elements of a body of work that addresses human pain, dignity, tenderness and resilience. Decades after their creation, his works retain the ability to challenge viewers and raise questions about living conditions and the inequalities that run through societies.

The exhibition dedicated to Guayasamín completes La Mar de Arte’s visual journey and reinforces Ecuador’s presence in the festival programme. Alongside ‘Los de aquí’, focused on the identity and experience of the Ecuadorian community, and ‘Distrito’, centred on territory and the city, it offers a third perspective linked to Latin American art and humanist commitment.

A festival that continues beyond the stages

The three exhibitions extend the spirit of an edition of La Mar de Músicas that has showcased Ecuador’s cultural richness through different disciplines throughout August and September. Although the concerts ended on 25 July, the festival remains present in Cartagena through the visual arts, as well as through projects that have also addressed cinema, literature and gastronomy.

La Mar de Arte thus keeps part of the festival’s cultural programme open throughout the summer. The exhibitions offer the public three different journeys: reflection on identity and rootedness in ‘Los de aquí’, observation of the urban landscape and its transformations in ‘Distrito’, and an approach to the graphic work and humanist thinking of Oswaldo Guayasamín.

In this way, the programme enables visitors to explore the relationship between art, memory, territory and personal experience, while maintaining in Cartagena the cultural link with Ecuador that has defined the 2026 edition.