In the underground of the Real Alcázar of Seville there is an explosive exhibition. The artist tells us about it.

Spanish artist Alejandro Vico (born 1983 in Granada) presents "Ecos de un Imperio" in the underground spaces of the Real Alcázar of Seville. The exhibition transforms imperial portraits of Charles V and Isabella of Portugal—central figures in the Habsburg empire and the 500th anniversary of their marriage celebrated at the Alcázar—into fragmented, burned, and perforated traces. Rather than restoring or celebrating these images, Vico subjects them to material erosion, creating works that exist as residues and apparitions. The project was developed specifically for the site starting in August 2025, occupying the basement of the Palace of Pedro I, a marginal area that shifts focus from official grandeur to hidden, archaeological layers of memory.

The exhibition matters because it rethinks how historical power images function when stripped of their monumental authority. By placing the work in the Alcázar's subterranean spaces, Vico challenges the traditional narrative of imperial celebration and instead foregrounds instability, loss, and the subjective role of the viewer. The project also demonstrates a growing trend in site-specific contemporary art that engages critically with heritage institutions, using their own architecture and history to question established iconographies. Vico's approach avoids direct critique or deconstruction, instead reactivating these images to open new possibilities of interpretation, making the work potentially transferable to other contexts while remaining deeply tied to the Alcázar's layered Iberian history.