3 Oct 2026

AQUA MATER by Sebastião Salgado comes to Madrid: the beauty, strength and fragility of water in a unique exhibition at Fundación Canal

by | posted in: Art, Artists, Events, Photographers, Visuals | 0
“Victoria Falls, recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, is one of the most impressive natural spectacles in the world. In this image, taken from Zambia, the water drops 108 meters along the 1.7 km width of a geological fault. Zambia, 2008. © Sebastião Salgado”

For the first time, the series Aqua Mater and Glaciers by renowned Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado are presented together in a single exhibition experience, curated and designed by Lélia Wanick Salgado. Opening on 28 October at Fundación Canal (Sala Castellana 214) in Madrid, the exhibition brings together nearly one hundred large-format photographs that explore the beauty, power and fragility of water on our planet.

Housed in a truly singular setting — the interior of a historic water reservoir in Madrid — the exhibition offers visitors an immersive sensory journey that unites photography, space and sound. More than a simple display of images, Aqua Mater invites the public to experience water as the origin of all life through an atmosphere designed to engage every sense.

The exhibition unfolds across two complementary bodies of work, shown together for the very first time.

“Victoria Falls, recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, is one of the most impressive natural spectacles in the world. In this image, taken from Zambia, the water falls 108 meters along the 1.7 km width of a geological fault. Zambia, 2008. © Sebastião Salgado”
“The jaguar (Panthera onca) inhabits mainly the Amazon rainforest, but also the Pantanal and the adjacent plain known as the Gran Chaco. Its length ranges from 100 to 190 centimeters and it weighs, on average, about 120 kilos. Among felines, only lions and tigers weigh more. Encontro das Águas National Park, Pantanal, state of Mato Grosso, Brazil, 2011. © Sebastião Salgado”
“The Ubari district, with 80,000 square kilometers of sand dunes that include salt lakes, in an area known in Arabic as Ramla d’El Daouda, which means ‘the dune of the worm eaters’. Libya, 2009. © Sebastião Salgado”

Aqua Mater presents oceans, rivers, waterfalls, ice formations and remote territories captured over two decades of Salgado’s work. The series portrays water in all its forms as the wellspring of life, in an impressive selection of large-format photographs that have become hallmarks of the photographer’s monumental black-and-white style.

Glaciers, presented for the first time alongside Aqua Mater, captures the great ice masses of Patagonia and Antarctica. These glaciers stand as silent witnesses to the fragility of water on the planet — majestic yet vulnerable landscapes that bear quiet testimony to the transformations underway in the natural world.

With this exhibition, Salgado continues the ecological and humanistic commitment that has defined his career. By turning his lens to water — the element from which life emerged and on which all life depends — he invites viewers to contemplate both its extraordinary power and its increasing vulnerability.

Curated and designed by Lélia Wanick Salgado, the photographer’s longtime collaborator and wife, the exhibition promises to be one of the highlights of Madrid’s autumn cultural season.

AQUA MATER — Sebastião Salgado
📍 Fundación Canal, Sala Castellana 214, Madrid
📅 From 28 October

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