La Fábrica and the Canal Foundation bring Aqua Mater to Madrid, the first major exhibition of Sebastião Salgado since his death

2026/07/28

La Fábrica, in collaboration with the Canal Foundation, brings Aqua Mater to Madrid, the first major exhibition of Sebastião Salgado (Brazil, 1944 - France, 2025) since his death. The exhibition coincides with the 175th anniversary of Canal de Isabel II and the 25th anniversary of the Canal Foundation, and will be open to the public from the end of October in the Sala Castellana 214.

Through a selection of nearly one hundred large-format images, the exhibition, designed to encourage reflective contemplation, reveals the power and immensity of water. Aqua Mater explores the unique sensitivity with which the artist, one of the most prominent contemporary photographers and recipient of the Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts, portrayed nature, and specifically water as a source of life in its many states: solid, liquid, and gaseous. The exhibition is the culmination of more than twenty-five years of travel that Salgado undertook, beginning in the mid-1990s, to some of the most remote and spectacular places on the planet, such as Antarctica, Canada, Patagonia, the Amazon, Iceland, the Himalayas, Russia, and South Georgia.

Curated by Lélia Wanick Salgado (Brazil, 1947), author, film producer, and environmentalist who directs the Amazonas Images agency, founded with her husband in 2004, this is the first time Aqua Mater has been shown in its current scope. The exhibition, which has already been shown in France and Italy, includes for the first time a selection of images from the Glaciers series and now arrives in Madrid in a presentation specially designed for the Sala Castellana 214 at the Canal Foundation.

More than a photographic exhibition, the show offers a journey through some of the most breathtaking landscapes on the planet and invites reflection on the relationship between humankind and the most precious resource for life. In the year that Canal de Isabel II celebrates 175 years of guaranteeing the water supply to millions of citizens and the Canal Foundation commemorates its first twenty-five years of cultural activity, Aqua Mater also becomes a celebration of water as a common element among nature, culture, knowledge, and sustainability.

All updated information, schedules and access conditions can be found on the official website of the Canal Foundation.