giant sculptures of Neptune and Venus, work of the Ceuta artist Ginés Serrán-PagánThey will finally be placed at the main entrance of Port of Malaga, next to Plaza de la Marina, although only for a limited period. After several weeks of public debate, mutual recriminations, and objections from cultural groups, the Board of Directors of the Port Authority has given the green light to a strictly temporary exposure of six months, with no option to extend it.
The decision closes, at least on an institutional level, a controversy that has gone beyond the local sphere, with statements from cultural associations, unions, political parties, and various government bodies. The collection, titled “The Columns of the Sea”Thus, for half a year, it will become one of the most visible images of the Malaga seafront, among the Old town and the port area.
An extraordinary Council meeting and a clear majority in favor
The final approval has arrived in a Extraordinary Board of Directors held this Friday at the Port Authority headquarters. This meeting was called after the president of the entity, Carlos Rubio, decided to halt the placement of the figures and resubmit the matter to the councilors for evaluation, following the response generated in the city and the reports that were added to the file.
As Rubio explained, the Port's governing body is made up of 15 advisors and the proposal for a temporary installation has gone ahead with a large majority: eleven votes in favor, two against, one abstention, and one dissenting vote with qualifications. This time, unlike the first decision adopted in June 2025, There has been no unanimitybut it does have support considered "very majority" by the presidency.
During the session, each of the council members was able to state their position after analyzing the documentation Included in the file: legal reports, technical opinions, resolutions from State Ports, as well as press clippings and statements from cultural and neighborhood associationsThe debate, Rubio describes, was "calm," despite the social pressure that had accumulated in recent weeks.
The president himself has recalled that the acceptance of the sculptures on loan The Port Authority has already approved it unanimously June 25, 2025, with an initial stay of 25 years in the Making planned for the complex. However, the climate generated after the appearance of the pedestals in Plaza de la Marina led to the matter being reopened and that long-term lease being replaced by a formula of exposure limited to six months.
The final agreement stipulates that the figures of Neptune and Venus, along with the two lions that complete the sculptural group, They will be installed as soon as possible. and will remain on display for six months "from the day their exhibition officially begins," as explained by the Port Authority. Once that period has ended, It will be dismantled and its relocation to another site that must be "agreed upon" and that generates a lower impact on the environment.
A temporary facility with no room for extensions
One of the points most frequently repeated by the Port Authority president has been the character strictly temporary of the artistic intervention. The exhibition is authorized by six months, non-extendableThus, the Port Authority protects itself against new controversies about its possible continuity or about the temptation to make the presence of the sculptures semi-permanent.
Rubio has insisted that, with the new vote, the Internal debate within the council is now closed and that the issue "is no longer within the Port Authority's decision-making scope." The idea now is to focus efforts on the operational side: assembly of the figures, security reinforcements and coordination of deadlinesThe president himself does not rule out that the works could be seen even before the end of March, provided that the technical services allow it.
The set, donated free of charge by Serrán-Pagán, consists of four monumental pieces In bronze: a Neptune that reaches approximately 10,5 meters in height including the pedestal, a Venus of about 8,5 meters, and two lions that are around 1,9 meters each. Other sources detail very similar measurements, with Neptune exceeding 7 meters without the base and Venus around 5 meters, in addition to weights that range between 1,9 and 2,25 tons by main figure and some 750 kilos per lionwhich gives an idea of the visual and technical impact of the installation.
At the same time, the Port has set aside a budget of around 70.000 Euros for the preparation of the space and the construction of reinforced pedestalswith the aim of guaranteeing the stability of the pieces against episodes of strong winds and other inclement weather. These structures, the Port Authority emphasizes, They will not be limited to this projectIn the future, they may be transferred to the Andalusian Regional Government or the Malaga City Council for use as platforms in cultural events or other artistic initiatives.
Aesthetic criticism, licenses in doubt, and a divided city
Beyond the technical aspects, what has shaped the discussion is the aesthetic and urban integration of “The Columns of the Sea”From the moment the pedestals began to be erected in the area of access to the port through Plaza de la Marina, various voices warned that a [unclear - possibly "illegal" or "prehistoric" structure] was being created. disproportionate monumental background for the image of the historic center, declared a Site of Cultural Interest (BIC) and considered one of the main symbols of Malaga's relationship with the sea.
La Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Telmo It was one of the first institutions to take a firm stance, describing the sculptures as "grandiose and anachronistic monumentality"and comparing its aesthetic to that of certain characters from the comic book and superhero universe. For this group, the proposal It does not engage with heritage surrounding and projects an image that has little to do with the city's artistic tradition.
The criticism didn't stop there. Ateneo de Málaga, the Economic Society of Friends of the Country, the Malaga Academy of Sciences And other organizations insisted that the port entrance is not a suitable place for figures of this size and characteristics. Some spokespeople even went so far as to say,derision"towards a cultural ecosystem that they consider fragile and unique, and which could be altered by such a dominant element in the urban landscape."
In parallel, several citizen platforms and cultural agents focused on the lack of municipal licenses and prior public consultation for an intervention of this scale. That feeling of opacity led to a signature collection on Change.org with the aim of stopping the project, and encouraged numerous groups to request that, in any case, a alternative location within the port itself that would not affect the entrance to the historic center.
The controversy even reached international media: the British newspaper The Times It echoed the issue with a headline describing the figures as "Roman gods that look like comic book superheroes," a phrase that fueled the debate about public art and the image the city projects to the outside world. For the Port Authority, however, the initial intention was just the opposite: beautify the sea access and give it a distinctive element.
Positions of the administrations: respect, caution, and disagreements
As the artistic and civic debate intensified, the various administrations involved have been establishing positions, sometimes with carefully measured messages to avoid institutional clashesThe mayor of Malaga, Francisco de la Torre, has repeatedly chosen to remain on the sidelines of the Port Authority's decision, insisting that the City Council It has no direct jurisdiction over the interior of the port area..
De la Torre has emphasized that the City Council "will respect the decision" that the Port Authority adopts, and that the important thing is that the sculptures, once installed, can be seen by the public so that everyone can form their own opinion. The mayor has avoided commenting on personal tastes and has placed the discussion on a more institutional level, defending a "Plural and open Malaga" where very diverse sensibilities coexist around public art.
From the Andalusian Regional Government, the Minister of Culture, Patricia of the WellShe has ruled out any direct involvement of her department in the process. The regional official explained that the specific area where the pedestals are located is outside the boundaries of the Historic Centre's Site of Cultural Interest, and that in the declaration of that protected group itself A specific protection environment was not definedTherefore, since it is a port public domain area assigned to the State, No authorization from the Ministry of Culture is required. for the placement of the sculptures.
This interpretation has been challenged by part of the opposition in the Andalusian Parliament, which denounces an alleged "visual pollution" of the historical context and questions whether the absence of a defined area in the BIC declaration leaves the immediate landscape completely unprotected. The Socialist MP Josele Aguilar He criticized the Board for "looking the other way" and described the operation as an "attack" on the image of the city center.
At the state level, the Deputy Government Delegate in Malaga, Javier Salas, has gone further and publicly expressed his opposition to the installationDuring the extraordinary Council meeting, Salas asked postpone the decision to gather further reports and ascertain the formal position of the Board, the City Council, and organizations such as the Royal Academy of San Telmo. In his opinion, a longer analysis should have been conducted before making a decision. the cultural and landscape impact of the operation.
Despite their warnings, the majority of the Board members decided to proceed with the temporary exposure plan. The deputy delegate voted against it, as did the representative of UGTWhile CCOO opted to abstain. There was also a dissenting opinion of the State Attorney's Office, which introduced legal nuances to the agreement, although without preventing its approval.
Costs, file under scrutiny, and conflicting perceptions
Another area of discussion concerns the overall cost of the intervention and the way the paperwork has been processed. Although the sculptor has donated the works free of charge, various groups and unions have questioned the final cost of adapting the space, installing the pedestals, conducting technical studies, and contracting insurance and security.
The Port Authority president has spoken of an investment of around 70.000 Euros primarily intended for the supports and reinforcements needed to hold the figures, in addition to the required reports. However, UGT has increased that amountnoting that to the approximately 67.000 euros already spent on pedestals and around 8.000 euros for the technical report, we would have to add other concepts not publicly detailedwhich, in his opinion, demonstrates a lack of transparency in the economic breakdown.
The union has also denounced the report issued by State Ports It would not address a key aspect with sufficient clarity: whether it is legally possible to cede a public port land, on which a permanent work has been carried out, without the corresponding Administrative concession that supports the continued use of the space. These kinds of doubts have contributed to the feeling that the procedure was built "on the fly."
Added to this is the controversy surrounding the Technical information sent to specialists who assessed the columns' capacity to support the weight of Neptune and Venus. Certain reports indicate that the Port may have facilitated inaccurate or incomplete dataThis is something the Port Authority does not share, but it has fueled distrust among some citizens and groups critical of the project.
On the political and social front, platforms like UGT consider the proposal to limit the installation to six months to be a "distraction maneuver"This is an attempt at a "whitewash" in the face of cultural and media pressure that does not address the "alleged irregularities" in the process. For these groups, the underlying problem is not only how long the sculptures will be on display, but how decisions are made about public space and what role is given to citizen participation.
The Port Authority, however, maintains that the work has been carried out with sufficient legal and technical reports and that the six-month solution without extension seeks precisely to mitigate the impact Regarding those who reject the intervention, the city is given the opportunity to view the pieces and form its own opinion for a limited time.
A debate about public art that goes beyond Malaga
The case of the Neptune and Venus sculptures has ended up becoming a symbol of the contemporary debate on the art in public space in Spain and, by extension, in Europe. Through social media, opinion pieces, and coverage in national and international media, not only the artistic quality of the ensemble has been discussed, but also who decides what is exhibited in such sensitive places as the entrance gates to a protected historic center.
For some proponents of the project, the presence of these giant figures in the Port of Malaga represents a opportunity for international projection and a way to reinforce the city's maritime identity through a recognizable icon. They see in "The Columns of the Sea" an intervention that can generate conversation, attract attention, and shape a A different postcard view of the Malaga coastline.
For many of its detractors, on the contrary, the whole thing reinforces a model of touristification and spectacle which departs from the daily work of local artists and cultural institutions that have spent years building the city's artistic fabric. They fear that the installation, even if temporary, eclipse other more integrated proposals with the environment and the history of the port, and they complain of not having been consulted beforehand.
Amid these opposing positions, the Board of Directors of the Port Authority has opted for an intermediate formula: not abandoning the project, but limiting its timeframe, making it clear that there will be no extension, and leaving the door open for the possibility that, after six months, a different location is soughteither in another area of the port or in another city interested in hosting the sculptures.
What happens in the coming months will largely serve to gauge public opinion: whether the presence of Neptune, Venus, and the two lions is perceived as a monumental appeal or as an imposition foreign to the character of MalagaThe Port Authority has committed to announcing the exact assembly and dismantling dates soon, while associations and administrations will continue to closely monitor a project that has gone, in a very short time, from being an apparently "peaceful" matter to one of the most talked-about cultural debates in the city.
