Connecting people through art 

We are delighted to announce the opening of Echoes, a new exhibition at MACBA – Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, presenting a selection of seven video works recently donated by the Han Nefkens Foundation to the museum's Collection.

Curated by Clàudia Segura, the exhibition brings together works by Aziz Hazara, Bárbara Sánchez Barroso, Erkan Özgen, Gabriel Mascaro, Hao Jingban and Thao Nguyen Phan, offering a compelling overview of some of the most pressing concerns in contemporary art. Through different approaches to moving image, the artists explore memory, violence, migration, identity, colonial legacies, ecology and forms of resistance.

Echoes marks the first public presentation of a selection from the eighteen audiovisual works donated by the Han Nefkens Foundation to MACBA in 2025. The donation reflects the long-standing commitment shared by the Foundation and the museum to supporting contemporary artistic production while expanding the presence of international video art within the museum's Collection.

The featured works were produced through the Han Nefkens Foundation's international grants and commissioning programmes. Remaining true to its philosophy of not building its own collection, the Foundation donates the works to museums and public institutions, ensuring their long-term preservation, research and public accessibility.

As Han Nefkensexplains:

"One of the Han Nefkens Foundation's goals has always been to build lasting relationships between artists and museums. This exhibition offers visitors the opportunity to discover a selection of extraordinary works by international artists that the Foundation has recently donated to MACBA. But this exhibition is just the beginning. By forming part of the museum's permanent collection, these works will continue to stimulate dialogue with new audiences and will help to enrich the museum and Barcelona's cultural life over time."

Through Echoes, visitors are invited to reflect on the realities shaping our present—from the consequences of war in Afghanistan to migration across the Mediterranean—through works that intertwine testimony and fiction while exploring the relationships between history, territory, ecology and the body.

Echoes forms part of MACBA's new presentation of its Collection dedicated to video, alongside Counter-information: Video-Nou / Servei de Vídeo Comunitari and Pere Portabella: The Committed Gaze. Together, these three projects highlight the moving image as a powerful artistic medium that not only documents reality, but also activates overlooked histories, diverse perspectives and new ways of understanding the present.

The exhibition also marks the beginning of a lasting collaboration, as these works become part of the MACBA Collection and continue to feature in future exhibitions and research projects.

Read more: https://www.macba.cat/en/exhibitions/echoes-videos-from-the-han-nefkens-foundation-donation/