The best exhibitions in Barcelona that you can’t miss

From €15

Joan Miró didn’t speak a word of English, but that didn’t stop him from conquering the US art scene between the 1940s and 1960s. This exhibition at the Fundació Miró, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary in style, reveals how American abstraction found its great precursor in Miró. The best thing about this edition is that you won’t just see “Mirós,” but you’ll also walk among works by titans such as Mark Rothko and Helen Frankenthaler, finally understanding the mystical connection between them. This is a unique opportunity to take a peek into Atelier 17, the New York studio where Miró shared visual confidences with artists of the stature of Louise Nevelson.

From €6

Forget the sugar-coated image we were taught in school: the Mercè Rodoreda presented by the CCCB is radical, fantastic, and deeply contemporary. The exhibition is designed as an organic forest where you can lose yourself among more than 400 pieces that narrate everything from the pain of exile to her metaphysical obsessions. This weekend, take a close look at the interventions by contemporary artists such as Mar Arza and Oriol Vilapuig, who have created exclusive pieces for this exhibition, demonstrating that Rodoreda’s universe is more alive (and wilder) than ever.

From €10

This exhibition by IDEAL is a show that takes an in-depth look at the work of two of the greatest geniuses in the history of art, both for those of us who already love them and for their new fans. But that’s not all: this immersive exhibition invites us to make a Solomonic decision, to decide which of these artists is the best. This will be decided thanks to different installations and interactive spaces where we can enjoy the most legendary works in 360º.

From 12

Crossing the threshold of the MACBA these days is like stepping into another reality. This exhibition, curated by Elvira Dyangani Ose, is an explosion of color, music, and activism that imagines a future where African peoples and their diasporas walk hand in hand. What blew us away the most is how it rescues the history of working-class Barcelona, revealing the presence of Black activists who were always there but whom official history chose to ignore. Don’t miss the flag installation at the entrance: it’s a full-fledged “welcome to Pan-Africa” that changes your perspective.

From €6

You don’t have to travel across the world to discover the magic of the Pacific islands. CaixaForum brings us an impressive selection of pieces from the British Museum that tell us about sailors, warriors, and weavers. What is most striking is the ability of these peoples to innovate with what they had at hand: from coconut fiber armor from Kiribati that looks like something out of a science fiction movie to spiritual figures with incredible power. Don’t leave without watching the videos on traditional navigation; you’ll understand why they were the best explorers of the ocean.

From €9

The Banksy Museum in Barcelona brings together all of Banksy’s experiences on the streets in more than 130 of the artist’s works. It does so by creating a setting that is perfectly adapted to the street art environment. In it, visitors stroll through an urban setting that takes them from city to city and from era to era to discover the iconic and sometimes lesser-known works of this street artist up close.

From €6

This exhibition brings together dozens of home movies, helping us to understand the evolution of audiovisual language from another point of view (non-professional and intimate) and how technology and new devices have influenced the way we portray everyday life, as well as our relationship with cameras.

La Virreina brings us the first retrospective in Spain of Vietnamese filmmaker Trinh T. Minh-ha, an artist who has spent decades questioning how we view what we don’t know. Her films are a mixture of avant-garde, poetry, and fierce criticism of colonialism. This edition highlights her latest work, What About China?, in which she explores Chinese geography with a sensitivity that keeps you glued to the screen. If you’re looking for a cultural event that makes you think and is also free to attend, this is the place for you.

Also at La Virreina, Paloma Polo invites us to engage in an exercise in “political archaeology.” For more than a decade, this artist has been researching how stories of collective struggles have been hidden from us, especially those marked by colonialism and patriarchy. Through powerful installations and videos, Polo shows us that storytelling is an act of resistance. This exhibition is ideal to combine with Trinh T. Minh-ha’s exhibition and leave Las Ramblas with your mind wide awake.

From €6

How are we going to live when there are no more materials left to make things? The DHub answers this question with its new permanent exhibition. It is a fascinating journey that ranges from colonial extractivism to today’s craziest solutions: furniture made from fungi, fabrics made from algae, and extreme recycling. With more than 700 pieces, this exhibition teaches us that design is not just about making beautiful things, but about finding ways to do so without destroying the world in the process.

From €5

The Museu d’Arqueologia de Catalunya offers a contemporary look at the Roman Empire, exploring life stories, video mapping, and more than 200 archaeological objects. A permanent exhibition that connects the past with the present, showing the Roman influence on today’s society.

From €14

Paradox Museum is more than 70 exhibitions in one, more than 70 experiences that invite us to play with perception and optical illusions. A place to learn while having fun, thanks to scenarios that, in addition to creating the most curious paradoxes, invite us to take pictures.