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Programme
The first route of the museum ship will be the Mediterranean, an area of millennia of history and exchange, which has always mobilized and nourished the inspiration of artists, and naturally invites intercultural dialogue.
Discover the programme of activities on the quayside and in the towns: performances, concerts, conferences, screenings, workshops, meetings and other events.
Upcoming events
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Experiences on board the museum boat
Experience on reservation. Duration: 45 min.
Kitchen workshop, Mastro Sol, Maja Escher
In this workshop, each participant shapes and decorates a cookie figure for Mastro Sol, an installation inspired by Alentejo festival rituals, where figures are hung from festive masts. Each piece carries the gesture and story of its maker, joining others in a collective artwork made by many hands. When Mastro Sol is exhibited on June 27 at 11:00 am, you can return to find your figure and see how it became part of the final piece.
Caravanserá Workshop
Before the performance (on June 27th), audiences are invited to take part in a participatory workshop where movement, sound, and collective actions gradually shape the world of Caravanserá. Inspired by historical “caravanserais” – places of encounter and exchange –, the workshop creates an informal space where participants of different ages contribute to the atmosphere of the performance, blurring the boundaries between audience and performers.
Kitchen workshop, Mastro Sol, Maja Escher
In this workshop, each participant shapes and decorates a cookie figure for Mastro Sol, an installation inspired by Alentejo festival rituals, where figures are hung from festive masts. Each piece carries the gesture and story of its maker, joining others in a collective artwork made by many hands. When Mastro Sol is exhibited on June 27 at 11:00 am, you can return to find your figure and see how it became part of the final piece.
Caravanserá Workshop
Before the performance (on June 27th), audiences are invited to take part in a participatory workshop where movement, sound, and collective actions gradually shape the world of Caravanserá. Inspired by historical “caravanserais” – places of encounter and exchange –, the workshop creates an informal space where participants of different ages contribute to the atmosphere of the performance, blurring the boundaries between audience and performers.
NEW BOWING BAND
NEW BOWING BAND is a project aimed at creating an intercontinental band that blends the musical traditions of the diverse cultures found in the municipality of Odemira. It is the stories and musical experiences of each musician that shape this soundscape, marked by a variety of influences. It is, therefore, a gathering of musicians from different countries who come together to play, sing, and, above all, create a new, contemporary, and vibrant sound.
Sopa de Pedra
Sopa de Pedra is an all-female Portuguese vocal ensemble exploring the country's oral traditions, long carried by women work songs, lullabies, romances, festive and devotional chants. Their music is built around a cappella polyphony, at times accompanied by traditional percussion such as the adufe and pandeiro. Through their multi-voice arrangements, they breathe new life into a heritage long confined to the domestic sphere, bringing it onto contemporary stages in Portugal and abroad.
PLO Man
In a DJ set shaped by dense atmospheres and subtle sonic drifts, PLO Man builds a sonic journey where house, techno, breakbeat and dub echoes intersect in a fluid way. Closely connected to the universe of Acting Press, a cult label within the underground electronic scene, he develops an approach attentive to texture, duration and the slow transformations of the dancefloor. The video projection of an original drawing by JAS expands this sensory experience.
KAI – JAS & Pedro Moura
An immersive performance where live drawing and sound unfold together. Through the collaboration between JAS and Pedro Moura, image and music merge into a shared sensory experience.
Bal Moderne
A contemporary dance event where everyone is invited to take part in a lively and joyful late afternoon full of movement. The audience learns, in just a few minutes, choreographies created by international artists, becoming performers themselves. Between learning and celebration, this collective format dissolves the boundaries between stage and audience, fostering connection, sharing, and the discovery of contemporary dance through direct experience.
CAROLF
In an immersive DJ set, CAROLF guides the audience through subtle sonic landscapes, weaving experimental textures, ethereal atmospheres, and sporadic rhythms. Her selection reveals a deep sensitivity to detail and mood. The experience is enhanced by video projections of JAS’s original drawings, creating a sensory dialogue where sound and image merge into a contemplative, ever-evolving universe.
Fiz um foguete imaginando que você vinha, de Janaína Marques
Rosa lies inside an MRI machine. She is asked to think of a happy memory, something she doesn’t have. It is time to create one, by returning to her childhood, when her mother was arrested and accused of murder. And there they are, in a realistic reverie, travelling in an old hot dog van along the dirt roads of northern Brazil. Janaína Marques’ feature debut is a guided tour through a mind in turmoil, its landscapes and its wounds.
Past events
The Right to Home: Diaries of Limassol’s Gentrification
The Right to Home bears witness to the struggles of staying, resisting, and imagining the future in Limassol amid rapid urban change and gentrification. Centring voices within the local community and bringing together over twenty artists, academics, and social practitioners, the project unfolds around a group exhibition that serves as the stage for screenings, performances, concerts, open discussions, workshops, podcasts, and publications.
Walking, Wheeling and Writing in the City
A journey through the city exploring the impact of gentrification on the lives and memories of its living beings, using exercises, games, guided narration, and writing.
In the Shadow of the Towers
A screening programme featuring new works by Phivos Philitas, Adonis Archontides and Androula Kafa, created for the exhibition The Right to Home: Diaries of Limassol’s Gentrification.
Trapped in Wordscapes and Staged Territories
A participatory poetry session hosted by artist Aggela Ioannidou, exploring how the transformation of cities affects individuals and their communities through the work of award-winning author Donna Stonecipher. Guests are invited to engage as much or as little as they wish by listening, reading, and sharing thoughts and experiences.
1953
1953, a dramaturgical exercise on the facticity of the present, reimagines the Rialto Theatre as a fluid space dissolving borders between stage and auditorium, inside and outside, day and night. Structured in three parts and lasting fifteen hours, from sunset to sunrise, it unfolds as a shifting landscape where the dramatised and the real intermingle. Its coordinates are set by the lives of scenographer Valentino Joseph and Julie the elephant, both born in 1953.
Open Studios: Tamara Al-Samerraei and Ghyzlène Boukaïla
Open Studio presentations by Tamara Al-Samerraei and Ghyzlène Boukaïla, artists-in-residence at Art Explora’s Mediterranean Crossed Residency programme in Cyprus. Al-Samerraei presents new paintings exploring memory, absence, and precarious spaces, inspired by makeshift studios and abandoned huts that echo a childhood home. Boukaïla presents a mixed-media installation linked to her lecture-performance Djebel al-Qāf — is it reachable?, on view 31 Oct–2 Nov.
1953: Night Works and Other Studies by Valentino Joseph
Bringing together sketches made in bed just before sleep, technical notes and sculptures maquettes that were never materialized, as well as a series of portrait studies culminating in a single painting, Pylon Art & Culture hosts the first solo exhibition of Valentino Joseph, seeking to shed light on another side of his multifaceted body of work. Opening on the second day of the Limassol Art Walks, the exhibition unfolds as both an epilogue and an autonomous continuation of the performance 1953 at the Rialto Theatre.
Necrogeographies: A walk around St Nikolaos Cemetery in Limassol
On November 1st and 2nd 2025, we invite you to Limassol’s old cemetery for a guided walk through its silence(d) grounds. Blending academic research with stories from those who sustain the cemetery, along with comparative material from our research in Greece, Denmark and Japan, we explore class-based, gendered and political necrogeographies. A reflective journey through social change, memory and care.
Exhibition Tour: The Right to Home
A walk through the exhibition The Right to Home: Diaries of Limassol’s Gentrification together with the artists and curator, exchanging insights and reflections on the works and themes of the project.
In the Shadow of the Towers
A screening programme featuring new works by Phivos Philitas, Adonis Archontides and Androula Kafa, created for the exhibition The Right to Home: Diaries of Limassol’s Gentrification.
Limassol: an open conversation about gentrification and culture
An open space for sharing and reflection, this conversation explores the impacts of gentrification on some of Limassol’s long-time residents and communities, as well as its cultural ecosystem. Local artists join academics, activists and social practitioners to exchange daily experiences and critical perspectives on the city’s ongoing transformation, while the public is invited to contribute their own views and stories.
Live concert: Something Messy, MUSHA, Mava + ΚαππαΧι + Nnocxela
A live concert of hip-hop, rock, and electronic music showcasing the talents of Limassol's underground scene. Held in the iconic EKA Group garage, the concert will be followed by an afterparty at the Tapper Bar.
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Your Face Sounds Familiar
This year marks a special milestone for the Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) performers' community in Cyprus as they bring their much-loved talent show “Your Face Sounds Familiar” to a wider audience. For the very first time, within the framework of Art Explora Festival the event will be held in an outdoor public space, opening itself to the broader community and celebrating the creativity and spirit of the Filipino diaspora.
Jebel al-Qāf — is it reachable?
Ghyzlène Boukaïla’s Djebel al-Qāf — is it reachable? is a lecture-performance unfolding within an in situ installation, part waiting room, part forgotten checkpoint. Fragments gather around a mythical submerged mountain, echoing the threshold of the world in Islamic cosmology. Rooted in her film project Inner Sea Desire, the work drifts between stories, borders, and inner crossings. Installation on view 31 Oct–2 Nov, Performance on 2 Nov.
Secret
A nocturnal journey by Demetris Kolokotronis, recomposed with Stelios Ilchuk through sharp editing and a unique soundtrack. The footage captures Cypriot ecosystems: critters in caves, aquatic beings flashing or glowing in dark waters, legless and many-legged creatures moving across the dry landscape. Human presence remains only as that of an observer and explorer, another animal existing in parallel, in an ethereal time and space. In parallel, at the premises of the museum, the lecture “A history of Cyprus through its animals: introductions, extinctions, interactions and depictions in ancient art” will take place.
Frequently asked questions
The Art Explora Festival will take place from spring 2024 to spring 2026 in various Mediterranean cities.
Festival events take place both on the museum boat's quay and in heritage and/or emblematic sites in the stopover towns. To find out all about upcoming events in your town, consult our Agenda.
The Art Explora Festival offers a rich, multi-disciplinary program including visits to the museum ship, exhibition pavilions, virtual reality experiences, artistic performances, concerts, lectures, film screenings, creative workshops and meetings. You'll be able to discover local and international artists, as well as thinkers and cultural players exploring contemporary themes related to the Mediterranean region. To find out all about upcoming events in your city, consult our Agenda.
All Festival events are free of charge. Please note, however, that some events - such as workshops - require a reservation via the ticket office. Please consult the page dedicated to each event for more information on times and booking procedures.
To ensure that everyone has the best possible experience at the Festival, we have drawn up a visitors' charter listing a few good practices.
Yes, the boat is freely accessible on site. However, you can pre-book your time online on our website.
For reasons of safety and preservation of the boat, high heels and stilettos may not be worn on the boat.
To take part in the workshops and meetings offered during the Festival, you'll generally need to register in advance. Information on how to register will be available on the dedicated event page, where you can also find details of times and how to take part.
Yes, the Art Explora Festival also offers child-friendly activities, such as creative workshops specially designed for young participants. Take a look at the program to find out about events and activities for children and families.
The museum boat is open to all free of charge. To find out on which quay it will be moored, or to pre-book your slot, consult the page dedicated to your town.
Appropriate facilities have been set up on the Festival site for the reception and access of people with reduced mobility. The boat is equipped with a 1m-wide ramp, accessible to people with reduced mobility, but may require the accompaniment of a third party due to its gradient of over 6%. Access to the aft deck and immersive exhibition is possible. However, the upper deck is not accessible. Please inform us in advance of any special accessibility requirements, so that we can make the necessary arrangements.
Thank you for your interest in the Art Explora Festival! To find out more about our volunteer opportunities and to apply, please visit our "Become a volunteer"section of our website. There you'll find all the information you need about the roles available and the application procedure. We look forward to meeting you!
We're delighted to consider new partnerships for the Art Explora Festival. To find out how, please visit our dedicated page or write to us at contact@artexplora.org