Seneca Space hosts a biennial collage festival that has grown into a nationwide reference, attracting major artists working in this vibrant discipline each year. The event spans mid-February and culminates on the final day with a robust program that blends exhibitions with hands-on workshops for all ages.
The festival began with a core showcase, Three kilometers of herbal collage, organized by Marisa Maestre. This edition continues through February 11 with a broad schedule of activities, including family-friendly workshops and a new origami sample exhibition. An instructional session on traditional paper folding will also be offered to teach this ancient craft from base techniques to finished pieces.
Collage art returns to Alicante with a fresh wave of participation and spectators. Nayma Beldjilali, a council member responsible for culture, notes that the program sits at the heart of the city’s wider cultural offerings and emphasizes its accessibility for all ages. The events, hosted in the Espacio Séneca cultural center, are designed to entertain while incorporating light, sustainable practices and a variety of creative content that resonates with local recycling culture.
Core Exhibition
Three kilometers of herbal collage forms the heart of the project. It features an exhibition by Marisa Maestre, whose work has drawn critical acclaim across Spain in private and public venues. The project stems from detailed observation, collection, and identification conducted in Maestre’s natural surroundings. Native plants within a three-kilometer radius are studied and presented as visual ingredients, with nearly 30 works transforming space at Seneca Space into a living gallery where nature becomes a central artistic source.
During nature walks along the Culebro river stopovers between Fuenlabrada and Leganés, Maestre collects leaves, nuts, and seeds that connect to art through their natural architecture and their suitability for botanic collage. After each gathering, species are identified to form a herbarium complete with labels detailing the collector, location, date, and habitat. Using manual collage techniques and portraits from the herbarium, Maestre creates layered works that fuse botanical documentation with artistic interpretation.
Maestre is a visual artist, illustrator, and graphic designer whose practice centers on producing immersive visual experiences and emotional responses through collage, illustration, and design. Her portfolio includes more than fifty exhibitions both inside Spain and abroad, and she regularly collaborates on educational projects for major museums. She co-founded PK Visual Artists Collective and has earned awards in illustration, graphic design, and visual arts. Recent recognitions include first prize at an advertising illustration competition and top honors at a visual arts biennale for a collective exhibition project titled Generis. The Three kilometers of herbal collage exhibition at Seneca Space runs Tuesday through Saturday from 10:30 to 13:30 and 17:00 to 20:00, with Sunday hours from 10:30 to 13:30.
Workshops and Examples
In addition to the main exhibition, the ALC Collage Festival offers a guided tour with the artist on Saturday, January 20 at 17:00. Recycling and creativity workshops for children occur every Sunday at 11:00, while adults can join study groups focused on collage herbarium, and explorations of origami with related paper studies on Saturdays at 18:00.
ALC Collage Festival Begins at Seneca Space
The event maintains a commitment to paper as a lasting form of artistic expression. Origami, the ancient art of paper folding, is featured for the first time as part of ALC Collage Fest, serving as an initial test for future editions and inviting guests to see how traditional techniques can inspire contemporary collage work.