New Acquisitions for New Stories 2025.2

Sala Rocamora. Museu de Maricel
5 June 2026 to 27 September 2026
  • Noves adquisicions per a nous relats 2025.2

Exhibition

NEW ACQUISITIONS FOR NEW STORIES 2025.2

Rocamora Room of the Maricel Museum

From June 5 to September 27, 2026
From Tuesday to Sunday, from 10 am to 7 pm

Organized by
Sitges Heritage Consortium – Sitges Museums

PRESENTATION

Coinciding with LGBTQ+ Pride Month, the Sitges Museums present the exhibition New Acquisitions for New Stories 2025.2, an exhibition that aims to highlight new narratives within the artistic and documentary heritage preserved by the Sitges Heritage Consortium.

The exhibition brings together works recently acquired or incorporated into the collections of the Sitges Museums, as well as deposits from the Art Fund of the Generalitat de Catalunya. The set offers a plural journey that crosses disciplines, languages ​​and different artistic generations, with special attention to creators linked to dissident discourses, queer identities, alternative memories and new readings of the history of contemporary art.

This proposal is part of the desire of the Sitges Museums to review and expand the traditional stories of the collections, incorporating perspectives that have historically had little presence in museographic discourses.

Research, the reinterpretation of heritage and the incorporation of new sensibilities are fundamental axes of this project, which connects historical and contemporary artists in the same space of dialogue.

 

INTRODUCTION

We do not go to museums merely to look: we go to see ourselves. To recognize ourselves, to discover ourselves, to reflect on who we are. According to the International Council of Museums (ICOM), inclusion, the promotion of diversity, and community participation are among the core imperatives of museum institutions.

The Maricel Museum in Sitges embraces this challenge through an acquisitions policy in which each new piece contributes to the creation of narratives that are meaningful, relevant, and diverse for its audience. Since exhibitions enable us to reflect upon and critically construct reality, incorporating the experiences encompassed by the acronym LGBTIQ+ is an opportunity to broaden, with honesty and responsibility, the shared meanings we call culture.

Thus, New Acquisitions for New Narratives, by making visible and celebrating the diversity of human nature through artists such as Ismael Smith, Paco y Manolo, Lluís Ripoll, Costus, Jean Cocteau, Ocaña, Roser Oduber, and Nazario, and by addressing affection, desire, and identity, becomes a celebration of empathy.

The ability to recognize in difference merely another expression of the infinite ways in which we can be and exist is the first step toward putting ourselves in another person’s shoes. At a time when some voices call for stronger borders, more homogeneous communities, and increasingly individualistic subjects, this exhibition aligns itself with the essential foundations of a democratic society: the belief that each and every one of us matters, and that, as part of a shared project, the values that guide our relationships must be both gentle—because they are rooted in care—and firm—because they concern dignity—embodying the spirit of human rights for all.

Pere Parramon, professor, critic, and writer.

OBJECTIVES OF THE EXHIBITION

  • Incorporate new narratives into the collections of the Sitges Museums.
  • Make artists and creators linked to the queer universe and dissident discourses visible.
  • Claim Sitges as a space of freedom, creation and cultural diversity.
  • To publicize the latest acquisitions and deposits incorporated into the museum collections.
  • To generate new heritage stories based on the critical review of the collections.

ARTISTS REPRESENTED

The exhibition includes works by the following artists:

  • Ismael Smith i Marí
  • Costus
  • Jean Cocteau
  • José Pérez Ocaña
  • Lluís Ripoll i Querol
  • Paco y Manolo
  • Roser Oduber
  • Nazario
  • Antoni Ruiz Boquera

LIST OF WORKS

Antoni Ruiz Boquera
Poster for the now-defunct discotheque Trailer de Sitges
1991
Lithograph on paper

Deposit of Isidre Roset Juan, 2025

Ismael Smith i Marí

The art market
1909
Ink on paper

Venda porcina
1909
Ink on paper

Gentleman
Paris, 1911
Ink on paper

Portrait of Joan Vidal i Ventosa
1905
Bronze
Ginfer Foundry

All works:

Maricel Museum, Maricel Fund
Acquisition of the Sitges Heritage Consortium, 2025

Costus

Minotaur
1985
Acrylic painting on plywood

Maricel Museum, Maricel Collection
Acquisition of the Sitges Heritage Consortium, 2025

Jean Cocteau

Mariner
n.d.
Indian ink and pastel on paper

Maricel Museum, Maricel Collection
Acquisition of the Sitges Heritage Consortium, 2025

José Pérez Ocaña

Self-portrait
n.d.
Watercolor and ink on paper

Self-portrait (when old)
n.d.
Gouache on paper

Maricel Museum, External Deposits
Deposit of the Art Fund of the Generalitat of Catalonia, 2025

Lluís Ripoll i Querol

A gust of wind
(Project: Sitges 20th century. Memories in black and white)
Sitges, 1991

Le voyeur
(Project: Sitges 20th century. Memories in black and white)
Sitges, 1993

Shower Series
(Project: Sitges 20th century. Memories in black and white)
Sitges, 1993

Sitges by night
(Project: Sitges 20th century. Memories in black and white)
Sitges, 1993

Maricel Museum, External Deposits
Deposit of the Art Fund of the Generalitat of Catalonia, 2026

Paco y Manolo

Atlant
2014-2022

Maricel Museum, External Deposits
Deposit of the Fund d’Art de la Generalitat de Catalunya, 2026

Roser Oduber
Salamandra. Comic in 6 pages
1985
Indian ink in pen on paper

Maricel Museum, External Deposits
Deposit of the Art Fund of the Generalitat de Catalunya, 2026

Nazario

Sketches and notes from Sant Sebastià. Allegory of AIDS
2000
Print on paper colored with watercolor

Rue Carolines
1993
Ink, gouache and collage on paper

Rue Carolines
1993
Print on paper

The Cavalcade
2000-2008
Ink, watercolor, gouache, marker and gold tempera on paper

Marilyn
Ink, pencil, gouache, marker and collage on paper

Medusa
Ink, pencil, gouache, marker and collage on paper

Various sketches and documents linked to Nazario's life and artistic career

Maricel Museum, External Deposits
Deposit of the Art Fund of the Generalitat de Catalunya, 2026