Wine: a cultural landscape

Organised by the Landscape Observatory in partnership with the Catalan Ministry of Territory, Housing and Ecological Transition, the seminar will meet on 15 and 16 April 2026 in the MediaTIC building in Barcelona, where national and international experts from various disciplines will reconsider the role of viewpoints and advocate for contemplating the landscape as a transformative and conscious practice respectful of the territory. The seminar can be attended in person or followed online. All information about the presentations, schedules, and registration form can be found on the Observatory’s website. [+]

For the second year, the Volta’s website has included a section called ‘Landscapes of the day’, which explains the characteristics and values of the landscape units crossed by each stage of the race. The 105th edition of the men’s race, held from 23 to 29 March, became a major platform for showcasing the diversity of Catalonia’s landscapes and their values, as it could be followed in 190 countries around the world. The informative text highlighting the unique landscape features of each stage is available in Catalan, Spanish and English. This partnership will be repeated for the women’s race, scheduled for June. [+]

The exhibition Misión Andalucía (‘Mission Andalusia’) can be visited from 21 February to 24 May 2026, at the Andalusian Centre of Photography in Almería. Curated by Juan María Rodríguez, the exhibition brings together 129 photographs by eight artists who offer a contemporary vision of the Andalusian rural landscape, exploring its geographical, social and cultural diversity. The exhibition focuses on the relationship between nature, human activity and territorial transformation, revisiting traditional imaginaries whilst avoiding stereotypical views. The project is promoted by the Andalusian Agency of Cultural Institutions and developed by the Andalusian Centre of Photography, in partnership with the Andalusian Institute of Historical Heritage.

The international symposium ‘25 years of the Council of Europe Landscape Convention’ was held on 17 and 18 October 2025 in Valencia to reflect on the achievements, challenges and new opportunities of the Convention. The event, organized by the Polytechnic University of Valencia, addressed four main themes: landscape planning, governance, risk management, and landscape studies. In the latter, Pere Sala, the director of the Landscape Observatory of Catalonia, participated as an expert to define recommendations for implementing the Convention. Summaries of the presentations and working sessions are now available.

The Landscape Observatory has actively worked with the University of Santiago de Compostela and with the publishing house Abada Editores to publish the presentations of the international seminar ‘Comunidades y periferias’ (‘Communities and Peripheries’), held in Fonsagrada (Lugo) in 2023. The book approaches peripheries by analysing the communities that inhabit them, drive them, shape them and transform them. The publication is part of the research project DEPARQ ‘Paisatges i arquitectures del error. Contra-història del paisatge a l'Europa llatina (1945-2020)’ (‘Landscapes and architectures of error: counter-history of landscape in Latin Europe (1945-2020)’), led by the University of Santiago de Compostela and funded by the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities. It was coordinated by María Gil, Miguel Anxo Rodríguez and Yolanda Pérez. [+]

The PPOL is the instrument designed to propose integrated management of the entire coastal landscape, including territorial waters, beaches and the first line of terrestrial coastline. The PPOL is aimed to be developed in cooperation with all coastal stakeholders to establish a consensual roadmap. Thus, following the publication of the document of general objectives and purposes (February 2026), a participatory process took place in March with five meetings and five workshops to discuss challenges and scenarios. In March, a web survey was also launched and can be completed via this link until April 30. Participation is open through the Participa Gencat portal.

Once again, the Observatory has collaborated with the MOT literature festival, organised each spring between Girona and Olot, which this year is dedicated to travel. The activity consisted of a continuous projection of photographs linking landscape and travel on screens at Can Trincheria in Olot and in the lobby of the Carles Rahola Library in Girona. Landscape is a significant part of most trips we take. In a region full of landscapes such as Catalonia, with such rich and diverse scenery, the interaction between individuals and places becomes a fundamental part of the travel experience.

In recent months, the Landscape Observatory’s Image Archive has grown thanks to the donation of photographs from the winners of the ENFooCA grant, Gemma Jané Tarragó and Núria Montserrat García, with the project ‘El color i el so: revelacions d’un paisatge’ (‘Colour and Sound: Revelations of a Landscape’); as well as photographs from students of the Higher Vocational Training Programme in Photography and Audiovisuals of the Olot School of Art, who collaborate with the Observatory in the annual project documenting the landscape from different parts of the county of Garrotxa.

The “Landscape Platform” of Wallonie (Belgium), created in 2006 by the Walloon administration, is a space for sharing experiences among the bodies that study and manage the landscape. It includes, among other resources, the landscape charter of the Parc Naturel des Plaines de l’Escaut, a guide for installing wind turbines, and a photographic observatory.

Pol Viladoms. Barcelona: Ediciones Posibles, 2025. ISBN: 979-1399011432.

The book offers a perspective on Pol Viladoms’ fascination with abandoned architecture and construction and urbanism models tied to tourism development, particularly water parks. Connected to sun-and-beach tourism, these structures emerged as an artificial extension of nature, designed for a type of tourism that essentially extracts from the territory and transforms the landscape into a single-use product.

Anushka Athique, Duncan Goodwin, Ed Wall (eds.). Routledge, 2026. ISBN: 978-1032854724.

This book offers a critical reflection on the dominant techniques of landscape, examines landscapes marginalised by globalising market forces and focuses on the collective nature of landscapes. The chapters demonstrate how landscapes are made possible only through the collective contributions of humans and nonhumans, as they interact, share, support each other and create together.

Robert Fàbregas i Ripoll (ed.). Salt: Casa de Cultura Les Bernardes, 2026. ISBN: 978-84-18734-62.

Catalogue of the exhibition series titled Aire (‘Air’) at Les Bernardes Cultural Centre. This season of exhibitions invites us to explore light as an aesthetic and spiritual experience and to embrace a free gaze capable of feeling emotion without the need for explanations. It includes the exhibitions ‘Llum, espai i temps’ (‘Light, Space and Time’), ‘Geologia ferida. Pell antiga. Crosta viva’ (‘Wounded Geology: Ancient Skin, Living Crust’), “Capturar els sons del silenci” (‘Capturing the Sounds of Silence’), “La immensitat immensa” (‘The immense immensity’), and “L’últim camí de Walter Benjamin” (‘Walter Benjamin’s Final Journey’).

Sergi Quiñonero i Anna Zaera (eds.). Amposta: Centre d’Art lo Pati, 2025. Disponible aquí.

For a decade, the ephemeral art installation project Els Ports. Natura i Art (‘Els Ports: Nature and Art’) has transformed the Els Ports massif into a meeting space between contemporary creation and landscape. This collaborative book reviews 10 years of interventions, educational processes and reflections on the relationship between art, nature and ecological awareness.

Juan Guardiola (ed.). Palencia: Fundación Díaz-Caneja, 2026. ISBN: 978-84-09-78591-9.

This publication aims to explore how art can highlight cultural and natural heritage and especially how it can impact rural realities in ways that are both poetic and political. It is intended as a theoretical manual focused on contemporary artistic practices carried out in non-urban territories.

Elia Canosa Zamora i Ángela García Carballo (coords.).Valencia: Tirant Humanidades, 2025. ISBN: 978-84-1183-735-4.

This book emphasises the value of tools of alternative spatial representation beyond conventional cartography. It explores various unconventional ways of representing and interpreting the spatial reality of urban peripheries, advocating for maps that acknowledge the impossibility of objective cartography, yet still reveal overlooked realities and perspectives that stimulate critical thinking.