Welcome
The Pontevedra Biennial does not return; it is brought back to life. And it does so in the style of the great stories, those that, when retold, allow us to see life from another perspective. For too long, silence occupied the space where art used to dwell. Today, in 2025, this town once again speaks its name thanks to contemporary works. From this corner bathed by the Atlantic, we look at the world once again, having the certainty that art not only reflects us, but also transforms us.
This Biennial is more than an event: it is an assertion of ideals. We gather together artists who challenge, who speak out, who offer us other ways of looking. Because art cannot stay away from suffering or beauty. We wanted this edition to be genuinely human, in the broadest sense of the word: to speak of the time we live in, to make us uncomfortable and to comfort us, to question our certainties, and to invite us to think differently. In a world that is breaking apart, art may be the last thing that unites us.
Over three months, Pontevedra will be a town without limits; a town that is conceived through art and that finds in culture its best path into the future. From Santa Clara Convent to the Illa das Esculturas (island of sculptures), this Biennial draws up an emotional map of our territories. We do not understand culture as an ornament or a privilege, but as a right that unites us, that opens doors, that allows us to imagine what does not yet exist. This Biennial is a pact: between what we were, what we are and what we want to be.
And I reaffirm myself: having organised an exhibition is not enough for us. We hope that this Biennial will spark a dialogue that will last beyond us. Because art, when it is true, does not only decorate walls, it crosses them. On behalf of Pontevedra, the Provincial Council and the Museum of Pontevedra, I encourage you to look with different eyes, to feel with a different sensibility. Because being human again – as our motto says – is also listening again to the echo of a work, to the delicacy of a stroke, to the courage of a form. Being human again. But together.