Every year the Archipelago concert series invites the audience to delve deeper into the complexity of the contemporary world through listening. The starting point of the sixth edition was one of the most significant images of 2021: the Ever Given container ship, one of the largest in the world, stranded on the Suez Canal, and the backdrop to a trailer harvesting crops. The image served as a pretext to reflect on the common history of tradition and experimentation, forced migration, the transportation of raw materials and goods, and the importance of ports, colonial routes and oceanic currents.   

This instalment of Archipelago was opened with a presentation by curators Rubén Coll and José Luis Espejo and the screening of Xabier Erkizia’s experimental film O’Gemer (2021), accompanied by a live quadrophonic performance by Raúl Cantizano. It also featured performances by Iranian musician and composer Mohammad Reza Mortazavi, the cultural association Pujllay Masis, visual artist and DJ Edna Martinez and the group Mazaher.