Image: Fundació Suñol
Fundació Suñol’s MORTALES+ project is entering its final days at the Hospital de Sant Boi de Llobregat, where the exhibition can be visited free of charge until 19 July 2026 in the main entrance lobby. The presentation extends an initiative that links contemporary art, health and memory, and frames the HIV/AIDS epidemic through a collective, socially engaged artistic process rather than a conventional gallery display.
MORTALES+ is described by the foundation as an evolution of MORTALES, a project conceived by artist Albert Potrony and cultural manager Roser Sanjuán. The work builds a dialogue between art, health and remembrance, creating what the institution presents as a bridge between the past and present of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Its current adaptation at Sant Boi has been developed with the collaboration of Torrents d’Art and the Parc Sanitari de Sant Joan de Déu, continuing the project’s movement from the foundation’s own spaces into settings connected to care and community health.
The exhibition’s significance lies in the way it treats artistic research as a collective practice. According to Fundació Suñol, MORTALES+ works from shared investigation into death, illness, care and life through art. The project also draws on direct collaboration with people linked to HIV/AIDS, including participants from the fields of health, activism and lived experience. In the Sant Boi iteration, a selection of works from the Suñol Soler collection has been used to connect artistic reflection with the conversations generated in project sessions.
Among the works referenced by the foundation is Sweet swimmers, 3 selfwatchers (1981-1982) by Chema Cobo. From this starting point, the group imagined Domassos del plaer, four hanging sculptures accompanied by a sound composition that incorporates the voices of participants. The foundation says the resulting installation brings together colour, body, desire and memory, underscoring the project’s emphasis on turning individual experience into collective expression.
That emphasis on collectivity is central to how Fundació Suñol presents the project. MORTALES+ is framed as a space of encounter, memory and repair, and as a poetic act of resistance in the face of vulnerability. The exhibition’s hospital setting gives that message particular force: rather than isolating art from the realities of care, the project situates it in a place where health, support and lived experience already converge.
The Sant Boi presentation follows an earlier showing at Fundació Suñol in December 2025, where the project was adapted into an exhibition for the foundation’s Barcelona venue. Fundació Suñol also made available a public programme from the project’s related round tables, held on 18 February, and uploaded the discussions to its YouTube channel. Those sessions addressed how art can look at HIV/AIDS and the challenges the disease still poses in health and society, extending the exhibition’s reach beyond the physical installation.
For Fundació Suñol, MORTALES+ also reflects the institution’s broader role as a presenter and connector of contemporary art, research and socially engaged projects. By placing the work in a hospital and opening it free to the public, the foundation positions art not only as an object of display but as a vehicle for dialogue around memory, illness and collective responsibility. In a field where the history of HIV/AIDS remains both urgent and contested, that approach gives the project a wider resonance beyond its immediate venue.
