Desplazamientos

Tracing the Invisible Journeys of the Mediterranean

Galeria SENDA | Barcelona

The Mediterranean is always moving — not just its waters, but its plants, animals, people, and the stories they carry. DESPLAZAMIENTOS brings together artists Anna Malagrida and Mathieu Pernot to explore those quiet, powerful shifts that shape the landscapes we think we know.

Malagrida looks at the chumbera (prickly pear) and its deep, unexpected colonial roots — a cactus imported centuries ago to cultivate cochineal red pigment, once prized across Europe. In her layered works, the red of cochinilla stains the glass like memory, while the cactus clings to the rocky edges of Cap de Creus, revealing how ecology and empire intertwine.

On the opposite shore, Pernot turns his lens toward Melilla. Among imported Australian eucalyptus trees — another species displaced by human hands — he captures the stark geometry of border fences and razor wire. His fragmented polyptychs echo the logic of the frontier: division, repetition, control.

Together, their works ask: What moves across the Mediterranean, and what gets stopped? Who decides what belongs — and what doesn’t?

This exhibition reframes the region as a living archive of colonial trade, forced migration, shifting ecosystems, and political tension, a place where nothing travels innocently and every landscape carries a past.

If you’re drawn to art that weaves ecology, history, and human movement into one thoughtful narrative, this is one to catch.