I have visited Mazarrón twice over a short period of time. It is not the first time I visit this location – essential in the Mediterranean Sea – but on those previous visits I did not know Luis Marino. What a different place it is since I met him! 

This could mean nothing if you are a tourist in this beautiful site, but this is not my case. When you meet a person, who shows you around like Luis did, you fall in love with the place and it becomes part of you. Our common space, The Mediterranean Sea, is full of distinguished dwellers who respect, spread and make their territory known by means of their own creations. This is why our Sea is formed by people who support and defend it deeply, despite selfish interests that attempt to divide us and make a place twinned historically and culturally into a place of unfortunate disagreements, in search of a better world while ours has been destroyed. Unfortunately, this is also Mare Nostrum. 

Luis Marino is a distinguished Mediterranean dweller, worthy of the name. Although I knew him as a photographer first and then as a painter, a sculptor and even a filmmaker; I do believe distinctions of artistic disciplines should not be made in his artwork. 

His artwork is always in relation to his surroundings. Luis is pure energy: he studies, thinks, researches, understands… and he offers us his heart through his artwork. After Susaña (2014), he presents us his collaboration in Origin, along with the rest of members of the Almagra artistic group. 

I would divide his work into three sections, but first, a note. Three proposals and three formats so that the spectator can find its own intimate space in each one of them. 

The first one, and in my opinion, a continuation of the previously mentioned Susaña, continues with his “landscapes of textures”, which invite the spectator to start a close journey, to a close surrounding using basic colours such as the red ocher and grey. 

It is a skillful conscious decision taken from a perfect knowledge of his intimate space. An evocation and tribute to his own life as a Mediterranean dweller. The horizontal scope of the work makes the visitor observe the artwork from one end to the other like the traveller who goes from port to port in search of his Ítaca. 

The second section is related to the vertical disposition. This captivates us since we are looking for the previous reference of the scheme and suddenly, we find ourselves stuck to the work, within its perimeter, soft and out of focus, if I may say that. The colours used are sullen…greyish; he never leaves earthy colours and tonalities. 

The cracks increase; these deep spaces where we project ourselves. However, this is not the “Cavern” and the shadows we observe are our own reflection. 

In the third proposal, Luis Marino leaves us speechless. We do need both previous proposals of this three-part artwork in order to understand what we are looking at. He suggests that we discover his landscape when there is an absence of colour. Square. We place ourselves like the Vitruvio Man, in his own space, within our own proportion. This time we are destined to dive into this scene, broken and as thought-provoking as a black and white view does. He suggests us to carry out a task: take his subjective landscape as ours and come back to the origin. 

Luis Marino gives us his whole photographic material. Through it, we observe how the artist’s life flows throughout the scars he shows. The marks of his life, his character and his wisdom create a perfectly orchestrated choreography with all the elements involved. A deep study of his Mediterranean and Mazarrón condition. Because of this, he is going to continue providing us with more of his Mediterranean journey. Who knows if next time he will travel farther from his own territory.