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The focus of artist Javier Espinosa´s work lies in the marine world and its species. This interest stems from his second profession as a diving instructor. On his almost daily dives, he also explores life in the sea. During the Activities 2022, he could deepen his explorations with the microscope. The mural he created for the the façade of the Colegio Mediterráneo, an elementary school in Águilas, shows an imaginative advancement of his observations in the sea.

Address C. Reina Sofía, 1, 30880 Águilas, Murcia, Spain

Artist Javier Espinosa, Video Graham Brooks, Photography Graham Brooks, Javier Espinosa, © Javier Espinosa, 2022

The Sea and the City Poster series by Katrin Funcke, Kristina Heldmann and Stefan Michaelsen on interviews with fishermen, citizens and cooks of Águilas, led by Roos Gerritsen and Tanja Granzow, and discussions with scientists
The food series is based on anthropological interviews with cooks of Águilas at the Mediterranean. The interviews were led by Anthroplogist Roos Gerritsen. She was supported by Javier Espinosa, Angel Vilar Castellar, and Lorena Gutierrez.

The Fishery series is based on anthropological interviews with fishermen, a historian and an official of Águilas. It describes their attitude towards the sea. The interviews were led by Anthropologist Tanja Granzow. She was supported by Ester Qunitana and Angel Vilar Castellar.

The scientific series is based on interviews and TED Talks with scientists. It depicts facts about the and its creatures.

The Águilas series states special facts about the city, and the Mediterranean sea, and requests the citizens’ relationship towards the sea.

The 33-pieces edition originated during ¡vamos, simbiosis!, 2022. It relates to marine science and local issues of Águilas, the collaborating Spanish city of the project. It was applied as a campaign on public information boards while a selection was exhibited in an enlarged version (140 cm) on movable walls on the centre square of the city, Plaza de España. The campaign fostered the public dialogue and awareness about man and sea as well as introduced the project.

Prints on moisture resistant paper, Paper edition: 29,7 x 42 cm, © The artists, 2021/22

Monitoring biodiversity is an important tool in nature conservation. Long-term monitoring data is the basis for developing research to understand why change in species composition and abundance occurs, and how detrimental effects of human-induced change can be mitigated. 

To establish a basis for marine biodiversity monitoring in Águilas, students from the biology faculty of Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich aimed to acquire large amounts of pictures of marine macro-organisms (particularly fish). The images were captured while snorkeling and fed into a newly generated scientific database for species identification. The long-term goal is to set up an automated species identification pipeline for citizen science projects. As part of the project, the biology students created a film to explain their work in Águilas and engage a lay audience. 

Duration 5:31 min, Video: Benedikt Atakul, Renata Baybekova, Juliana Iosif, Jacqueline Joosten,
Andreas Remmel, David Quinche, Project Leader Prof. Niels Dingemanse, Céline Oberste-Lehn, Data scientist Nadine Homeyer, © ¡vamos, simbiosis! 2022

Los Viejos and the Sea was inspired by the research of the anthropologist Tanja Granzow, who interviewed local fishermen. They spoke about their work, family backgrounds, and some severe problems they are facing in a changing environment. During the interviews, the artists Katrin Funcke, Kristina Heldmann and Stefan Michaelsen created photographs and subsequently a series of illustrations.

Actor Michael Masula was searching for a way to weave the stories into a fictional narrative. He created a text collage based on the fishermen´s statements and excerpts of Ernest Hemingway's novel The Old Man and the Sea, which tells the story of an old Cuban fisherman who spends several days at sea fighting against an enormous marlin that he has hooked but cannot reign in. 

On stage, two performers are reading the text collage in the form of a dialogue. They are seated on opposite sides of a table, representing the tensions between different stakeholders in fishery.

Staged public reading, 30 min, Premiere 6.10.2022, First performed in Spanish, followed by English and German, Performed by Luz Kaufmann, David Quinche, Concept, script and direction Michael Masula, Research Tanja Granzow, Stage design Michael Lehner, Andreas Bergmann, Technical setup Toni Melajoki, Photography Fabian Gasperl, Video Stephanie Guse, © Michael Masula, Tanja Granzow, 2022