Grande Hotel — A Shared Space

Grande Hotel was a collaborative exhibition by photographers Mario Macilau and Héctor Mediavilla, developed with the support of Spanish Cooperation as part of an exchange between African and Spanish artists.

Presented in 2011 at Núcleo de Arte in Maputo, the project brought together two perspectives around a shared subject: the Grande Hotel, an iconic building in Mozambique—once a symbol of luxury, later abandoned, and today inhabited in complex and unexpected ways.

Context and Approach

The curatorial concept was closely tied to the choice of space. Rather than exhibiting in a conventional gallery, the project was installed in Núcleo de Arte itself—an emblematic cultural building undergoing renovation at the time.

This decision was deliberate. The unfinished, transitional nature of the venue echoed the history and atmosphere of the Grande Hotel. To reinforce this connection, materials and objects collected directly from the hotel—discarded items, fragments, and debris—were incorporated into the exhibition.

An Immersive Experience

The installation sought to recreate, not literally but sensorially, the experience of inhabiting the Grande Hotel. Through this approach, the exhibition moved beyond photographic display, becoming an immersive environment where images, space, and objects interacted.

By placing the work within a raw and evolving architectural context, Grande Hotel invited viewers to engage with themes of memory, decay, transformation, and survival—bridging past and present through both image and place.