The biennial festival returns to Portugal from September to December with over 30 cultural proposals under the theme "Spain in Motion: Diversity and Sustainable Futures"

The Spanish Ministry of Culture today unveiled the programme for the 9th edition of Mostra Espanha, the biennial Hispanic-Portuguese festival that this autumn will unfold across 21 municipalities in Portugal with more than thirty proposals selected from nearly 400 submissions. Acción Cultural Española (AC/E) plays an active role in this edition, taking charge of one of the festival's most emblematic activities: the Guest Works.

AC/E's contribution to the festival takes the form of bringing three significant works from Spain's artistic heritage to Lisbon, where they will be on display simultaneously at two of the Portuguese capital's leading cultural venues from September onwards. At the Museu Nacional de Arte Contemporânea – Museu do Chiado, visitors will be able to see Valencian Fisherwomen (1915), a large-format canvas by Joaquín Sorolla on loan from the Museo Sorolla in Madrid. At the Centro Cultural de Belém, two works by Maruja Mallo from the collection of the Fundación María José Jové in A Coruña will go on show: Rubbish (1930), from the series Sewers and Bell Towers, and Living Nature (Life in Full) (1943), from the series Living Natures.

This is the first time the Guest Works activity has featured three pieces across two simultaneous venues, representing a significant expansion of the usual format. All three works speak directly to the festival's theme and its central threads: identity and diversity, the relationship between people and the sea, and the ties between territory and culture.

For this activity, AC/E takes on the technical coordination of the project, as well as managing the packing, transport and nail-to-nail insurance of the works, in close collaboration with the Ministry of Culture, the Museo Sorolla and the Fundación María José Jové as lending institutions.

Mostra Espanha was founded in 2009 with the aim of bringing Spanish culture closer to Portuguese audiences, and has grown edition by edition into an established meeting point for artists, institutions and cultural professionals from both countries. The 2026 edition also marks a milestone: for the first time, the festival extends its reach to Brazil with a concert at the São Paulo International Book Biennial.