The exhibition, organized in collaboration with the Cádiz City Council and the Royal Provincial Academy of Fine Arts of Cádiz, and curated by Bernardo Palomo, brings together painting, sculpture, photography, illustration and installations by prominent creators from the province and the Argentine artist Ingrid Haubrich
The exhibition, open until October 30, will be part of the programming of the XXIX Conference of Ibero-American Free Zones and Blue Zone Forum-InnovAzul 2026
Fran González: “The ocean that has historically connected us with Ibero-America continues today to be a path to share knowledge, promote projects and build new alliances”
The Free Zone of Cádiz, the City Council of Cádiz and the Royal Provincial Academy of Fine Arts of Cádiz have inaugurated this Wednesday at the Casa de Iberoamérica the exhibition 'That sea that unites us. Deep and immense ocean', an exhibition with works by 14 artists that turns the sea and its ability to connect territories, cultures and sensibilities into the common thread of a broad artistic proposal. The activity is part of the programming of the XXIX Ibero-American Free Zone Conference and the Blue Zone Forum-InnovAzul 2026, which will arrive at the end of October.
That sea that unites us It brings together works from different disciplines and artistic languages to build a plural view of an ocean that has historically marked the identity of Cádiz and its relationship with other towns. Painting, sculpture, photography, illustration and installations dialogue in an exhibition in which the sea appears as landscape, memory, matter, color, experience and, above all, as a meeting space.
The exhibition, curated by Bernardo Palomo, brings together works by artists from the Cadiz province Antonio Agudo, Augusto Arana, Manuel S. Arcenegui, Carmen Bustamante, Luis Gonzalo González, Abel Ippólito, Pablo Juliá, Joaquín Hernández 'Kiki', Sylvain Marc, Antonio Aparicio Mota, Paco Pérez Valencia, Antonio Rojas and José Antonio Pérez de Vargas 'Vargas', all of them linked to the Royal Academy Provincial of Fine Arts of Cádiz. They are joined by the Argentine painter Ingrid Haubrich, whose presence symbolically incorporates the other shore of the Atlantic into the exhibition and reinforces its Ibero-American vocation.
The State delegate in the Free Trade Zone of Cádiz, Fran González, highlighted during the inauguration that "this exhibition speaks of something deeply linked to the identity of Cádiz: our ability to look at the sea not as a border, but as a space of encounter and opportunities. That ocean that has historically connected us with Ibero-America continues today to be a path to share knowledge, promote projects and build new alliances."
González has stressed that "we want Cádiz to once again strongly exercise that vocation of connection between the two shores. And to do so from the economy and the business, but also from the university, innovation and culture. The coincidence of this exhibition with the XXIX Conference of Free Trade Zones of Ibero-America and Blue Zone Forum-InnovAzul expresses precisely that idea: a city open to the world that uses all its resources and all its talent to generate new opportunities for the future."
The Deputy Mayor of the Presidency of Cádiz, Pablo Otero, believes that this exhibition “was born from the desire to bring together artists from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Cádiz at the Casa de Iberoamérica to turn the sea into a common territory: a place where creation, memory, identity and the cultures that live on both sides of the Atlantic dialogue.
Otero, appealing to the Cádiz vocabulary, has assured that the exhibition "is, in some way, a great artistic dive. An invitation to immerse ourselves in different views of that sea that is part of our history and our present. And also an aguatapá: a moment to stop in front of the works, let ourselves be carried away by them and think about everything that the Atlantic has united and continues to unite."
For his part, the curator of the exhibition, Bernardo Palomo, explained that "the exhibition brings together different generations, disciplines and languages of artistic creation linked to Cádiz that has enormous quality and an important projection. Painting, sculpture, photography, illustration and installation construct very different views, but they all find a common territory in the sea, in the light and in that blue horizon that is part of the very essence of Cádiz."
The president of the Royal Provincial Academy of Fine Arts of Cádiz, Pablo Juliá, has especially valued the collaboration between both institutions and has pointed out that "'That sea that unites us' is born from the will of the Academy and the Free Trade Zone to open new spaces for collaboration." The photographer believes that “culture, business and institutions do not have to go separate ways, but rather we share a city, a history and an ocean that connects us with other peoples, and this exhibition demonstrates that through art we can and should also build projects for the future.”
The diversity of artists and disciplines allows us to explore different ways of approaching the sea and the landscape. Antonio Agudo takes the viewer from the Mexican Copper Canyon to the Irish coast of Dingle; Carmen Bustamante turns beaches, dunes, sandbanks and shores into settings that transcend the landscape, while Pablo Juliá recovers through photography spaces that are part of the collective imagination of Cádiz.
The work of Joaquín Hernández 'Kiki' also acquires special significance, which establishes a visual dialogue between Cádiz and Havana, with images of La Caleta, the Bay or the Havana Malecón; or the proposal of Paco Pérez Valencia, which converts the ocean itself into matter, story, experience and memory through works made on reused sails. Sculpture is present through creators such as Augusto Arana, Sylvain Marc and Antonio Aparicio Mota, while Ingrid Haubrich from Buenos Aires incorporates a look in which color and especially blues take on great prominence.
The exhibition is completed with the works of Manuel S. Arcenegui, who moves from the urban landscapes of Venice to a painting in which color takes center stage; Luis Gonzalo González, present through a personal universe of graphics, shapes and color developed in paint, silk and ceramics; and Abel Ippólito, who turns 40 graphite drawings into an illustrated narrative located in Cabo de Gata in 1976. For his part, Antonio Rojas transforms the landscape into a space of memory and perspective, while José Antonio Pérez de Vargas 'Vargas' delves into an abstraction of great chromatic and expressive intensity.
The exhibition, designed by Isabel Halo and curated by Bernardo Palomo, also the author of the texts, is born from the collaboration between the Free Trade Zone of Cádiz and the Royal Provincial Academy of Fine Arts of Cádiz, an alliance between two institutions from different fields that find a common space to generate new conversations and project artistic creation linked to Cádiz.
El escenario elegido, la Casa de Iberoamérica, refuerza el propio discurso de la exposición. Cádiz ha construido durante siglos una parte fundamental de su identidad a partir de su relación con el Atlántico y América y la muestra recupera esa vocación para trasladarla al presente a través de la creación contemporánea.
Ese componente iberoamericano adquirirá una especial dimensión durante la última semana de la exposición, que coincidirá con la celebración en Cádiz de la XXIX Conferencia de Zonas Francas de Iberoamérica y con Blue Zone Forum-InnovAzul 2026. De este modo, la propuesta cultural se integra en unas jornadas en las que Cádiz volverá a convertirse en punto de encuentro de instituciones, empresas, universidades, emprendedores y representantes de distintos territorios unidos por el océano. El arte y la cultura complementarán así el diálogo sobre cooperación, innovación, Economía Azul y nuevas oportunidades de desarrollo.
La exposición permanecerá abierta al público desde mañana, 24 de septiembre, hasta el próximo 30 de octubre, con entrada libre y gratuita. Podrá visitarse de lunes a viernes, de 9:00 a 21:00 horas, y los sábados, de 9:00 a 14:00 horas. La Casa de Iberoamérica permanecerá cerrada los domingos y festivos.