Art on the sea

Ecosail is one of the largest boats in the This is Med fleet, offering exclusive experiences in the city of Barcelona.

City Sailing by Julià, the leading nautical experience at Port de Barcelona, part of the maritime tourism brand This is MED, from Grupo Julià, presents the artistic transformation of its Ecosail catamaran thanks to the intervention of digital artist Albert Espona. He has turned the 250-seat vessel into a floating canvas that fuses art, technology, and the sea, bringing contemporary art to the open waters.

With soft tones and constantly evolving shapes, his work wraps the exterior of the catamaran in a visual interpretation of the rhythm of the waves. Inside, it becomes an immersive space inspired by the seabed, aimed at attracting both tourists and locals to Barcelona’s coastline.

The City Sailing Barcelona Skyline route offers five daily 1-hour tours (between 12:00 and 18:30), sailing to Port Olímpic, and a 90-minute sunset tour to the Fòrum with live music every day (between 18:30 and 20:00), depending on the sunset time.

According to Kiko Fargas, founder of This is Med, “with this initiative we want to build a bridge between the city and the sea, bringing contemporary art closer to the public in an innovative and accessible way. We believe in culture as a real tool to activate our environment, enrich urban life and return value to public space from the sea.”

The proposed artistic intervention represents a new dimension of Espona’s work, who has dedicated much of his career to researching the movement and transformation of nature through code and generative programming..

Floating art in Barcelona
The catamaran’s hull acts as a floating canvas, displaying a continuous flow of shapes and colours that vary with light and perspective, in constant dialogue with the sea. Inside, luminous sculptures evoke aquatic species through points of light, made from fragments of the artist’s digital works, creating a sensory and poetic experience.

This project allows Espona’s digital artwork—exhibited at the Villa del Arte Gallery in Barcelona—to transcend the screen, showcasing its versatility and ability to adapt to new formats. The initiative highlights art as a living, transformative, and ever-evolving experience.

Simultaneously, the Villa del Arte Gallery, at the Barcelona Cathedral space, hosts an exhibition that expands on this marine experience. The show features everything from the artist’s initial minimal and generative forms to his emblematic light boxes, allowing visitors to delve into his creative universe.

“In my work, I try to create images that cannot be produced through other artistic media and that suggest a new perspective on form and composition. Through light, curves, repetition, randomness, and complexity, I aim to convey a sense of interconnectedness, energy and movement, transformation of forms and life.”
— Albert Espona

Ecosail Barcelona Skyline Tours
Boarding and disembarking: Moll de Drassanes S/N – City Sailing ticket office
Information and reservations: https://www.thisismed.com/es/