Summer is the ideal occasion to enjoy culture and art in a more relaxed way, outside the rush of the rest of the year. In addition to resting and regaining strength, it is good to take advantage of all the cultural activities scheduled at this time to help us stand the heat.

MADRID

Rogelio López Cuenca awaits us at the Reina Sofía Museum with the exhibition “Yendo leyendo, dando lugar”. This is the first monographic exhibition that the Centre dedicates to this creator of Nerja, obsessed with the power of language and plasticity that the message can adopt in its many forms and over time. From his beginnings in the 80s with collaborative works that merged different disciplines, until he changed direction in the mid-90s, becoming more reflective and critical with the system, López Cuenca shares his concern around essential topics for the individual of our time, such as the migratory flows, historical memory or urban speculation. Until August 26th.

Rogelio López Cuenca, “Traverser”, 1986. Yñiguez Aragón Collection (via museoreinasofia.es)

SEVILLE

In 2019, the memorable trip to the Moon turns 50 years, a unique event that marked the history of events of the twentieth century. CaixaForum joins the commemorations with a funny and close exhibition about the work of Hergé and his famous character Tintin. Because Hergé was a visionary and, years before the first human-crewed mission left the planet, he had already put these charismatic protagonists in orbit. “Tintin and the Moon” covers a large part of the most famous and well-known space missions, in addition to planning a journey through the history of space exploration by the hand of Tintin and Milú. Until October 27th.

VALENCIA

Any occasion is a good moment to review the work of Fernando Léger, one of the parents of modernism. The IVAM, in collaboration with Tate Liverpool, organises this exhibition that brings together fifty pieces of the author, as well as videos, fabrics and murals, with which to take a tour of the trajectory of this Parisian creator. Besides, the exhibition revisits some key points of his artistic role and emphasises his profile of political criticism, being Léger, as he was, a staunch defender of the social function of art for all.

Fernando Léger, “Le tableau Les Constructeurs”, 1950

SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA

Media has extensively covered the refugee drama in recent years. However, the approach to the problem has sensationalist dyes that emphasise the drama of the experience lived by its protagonists and the catastrophic consequences of many failed trips. The CGAC of Santiago de Compostela brings together the work of about twenty contemporary artists under the curatorship of Piedad Solans and Santiago Olmo, in an exhibition that addresses this human conflict with a historical perspective and with less emphasis on the journalistic dissemination of the situation. Because societies and identities are also built on the basis of the flows of people. Exile has been, is and will be a great engine of cultural exchange and must be faced as a reality not exceptional, but purely human. "We refugees", until October 13th.

Roland Fischer, “Refugees”, 2016. (via cgac web, courtesy of the artist)

BARCELONA

With educational vocation, the CCCB hosts the exhibition “Quantum”, a project that gathers the joint work of artists and scientists to facilitate the explanation of concepts related to quantum physics. The tour splits into two parts, on the one hand, the work of ten artists who introduce these notions in their work to demonstrate that quantum physics transcends the purely theoretical level of academicism, and, on the other, the development and results of nine research projects around this theoretical physics approach. The visitor faces a multitude of questions about our reality and the perception of the world in an enriching and different experience that will make us rethink the traditional postulates of the known. Until September 24th.

LEON

The exhibition “El giro notacional” of the MUSAC delves into the power of the notation systems in the different fields in which they apply, not only for academic purposes but also for reflection. The desire to limit something, to translate it into a universally understandable encrypted language is at the same time, a form of intervention that eliminates the arbitrariness and freedom of things that happen without a pre-established order. This collective exhibition brings together the work of a large group of artists under the curatorship of José Iges and Manuel Olveira. The route articulates around five main axes: the musical notation, the mathematical and scientific world, the notations of the kinetic movement, those of cartography and space and, finally, those of thought. Until September 15th.

Josep Maria Mestres Quadreny, “Aronada”, 1971.

The work of Iyán Castaño (Oviedo, 1996) is situated within a genealogy of contemporary art that interrogates the tension between the ephemeral and the permanent, placing artistic practice on a threshold where nature, time, and perception converge. His research begins with an apparently minor geomorphological phenomenon—the traces left in the sand by the action of the tides—and transforms it into a poetic device for sensitive observation of the landscape. The temporal restriction imposed by low tide functions not only as a technical constraint but also as a conceptual structure that organizes the creative process and aligns it with an ethic of radical attention and presence.

Far from approaching the landscape as a mere backdrop or stage, Castaño recognizes in the maritime environment a generative system that precedes all human intervention. The sea, wind, and light produce autonomous records that he translates pictorially, shifting authorship toward a practice of listening and mediation.

The territory—initially asturian and progressively extended to other geographical contexts—functions as a material archive and situated memory. Each work becomes an unrepeatable index of a specific place and moment, revealing the fragility of natural cycles without resorting to explicit rhetoric of denunciation. In this way, Iyán Castaño’s painting operates as an active pause, a gesture of suspension that allows us to experience the world’s constant transformation from a sensitive and reflective proximity.

Open waters. 14-04-24. Expanded graphic on canvas. 2024. Detail.

In your practice, you work under the time constraint imposed by low tide. How does this temporal limit shape your creative process?

Low tide profoundly conditions my working method, but it does not function merely as a time limit; rather, it is the axis around which the entire project is structured. There is a prior phase in which I study meteorological conditions and the possible climatic variations of a specific day; based on this, I know whether I will be able to work and with which materials.

Once on the beach, during low tide, I have a very limited window—sometimes barely two hours or even less—in which I must move through the space searching for existing traces. If I find one, I intervene in it; if not, I must move on to another beach. After the intervention, I have to remove it quickly before the sea returns and erases every trace. In a way, these works transform the ripples of sand—those forms that are essentially ephemeral—into something permanent.

Where the sea is born. 15-09-25. Expanded graphic on canvas. 40 x 60 cm. Rodiles Beach, Asturias. 2025.

How does the meteorological and maritime environment—the unpredictability of the sea, wind, light, and tide—become a co-author of your pieces?

I do not consider the environment a co-author in the traditional sense, but rather the true author of the traces I work with. I am interested in understanding nature as a great creator: through tides, waves, wind, and light, the sand generates forms that are in constant regeneration. In order to create my works, the sea must first have created its own.

From there, using acrylics, oils, waxes, or sprays, I attempt to translate into the work my sensations and emotions in front of the sea at that specific moment. Whether it is winter or summer, cloudy or sunny, a small cove or an expansive beach, all of these context conditions result and become imprinted in the work.

Sand Ripples. 07-04-21. Expanded graphic on canvas. 189 x 140 cm. Niembro Estuary. Asturias. 2021.

Your work is closely tied to the Asturian territory—beaches, coastal forests, the cove of La Cóndia. What role do place, topography, local identity, and geographic memory play in your practice?

Place is everything in my project. Asturias was the point of departure and the territory where my gaze was formed. I have been working along this line for seven years, and over time I have come to understand that each trace is inseparable from the specific site and the exact day on which it is produced.

From there, I felt the need to expand the map and begin working in other territories. So far, I have developed works in Senegal, Ecuador, the Galápagos Islands, Indonesia, and elsewhere—and in each case, the result is completely different. The sea that bathes those coasts, the arrangement of the rocks, the morphology of the beach, or even the animals that inhabit it generate unique traces, impossible to reproduce elsewhere. This specificity of territory—its topography and geographic memory—is inscribed in each work in a singular, inseparable, and unrepeatable way.

Mangata. 05-11-25. Expanded graphic on canvas. 190 x 130 cm. Sorraos Beach. Llanes. 2025.

To what extent are climate change, rising sea levels, altered tidal cycles, or coastal erosion present—or potentially present—as an underlying reflection in your work?

My work does not originate from an ecological intention or a direct form of protest. If there is a reflection on the environment, it emerges indirectly, by bringing people closer to the landscape, inviting them to observe attentively and to develop a more empathetic relationship with the environment they inhabit. Beaches are in constant transformation, but I do not seek to fix the landscape; rather, I attempt to convey the experience of being in front of it. In this sense, each work is like a small sea that one can take home.

Tree of Life. 19-02-25. Expanded graphic on canvas. 50 x 70 cm. El Puntal Beach. Asturias. 2025.

To what extent do you plan your work, and how much space do you leave for the unexpected—or even for mistakes?

In my work there is very little planning in terms of the final result, but there is a very precise preliminary planning. Before going to the beach, I monitor the time of low tide, wave height, wind, and weather conditions; based on this, I decide which beach to go to. Even so, when I arrive, I still do not know what work I am going to make. It is there that I determine which material to use, which color to apply, and where the intervention will take place. Many times, the environment simply does not allow work on that day, and chance becomes an essential element of these works. Error, in turn, becomes a new possibility if one learns how to work with it.