MARE MAGNVM (Great Sea in Latin) is the name Romans gave to the Mediterranean Sea. These images point to real-life scenes from the Mediterranean and the Caribbean, and so many other sites of migration across bodies of water. Although the artist constructs fictional characters, he points to real-life scenes from many sites of migration across bodies of water. MARE MAGNVM does not refer only to a single or specific event. No information is given on the characters’ origin or their personal history. Their faces are not visible, covered by papier-mâché masks typical of Peñafiel’s native Ecuador, that both humanize and de-personify these characters. The identity of these people remains temporally and culturally ambiguous; their unspecific costuming transforms them into archetypal representatives of any Diaspora population.

The MARE MAGNVM: VLTRAMARINI NFT collection expands the narrative as a prequel and a sequel to the original MARE MAGNVM series that centers on real-life scenes from the many sites of migration across bodies of water around the globe. The NFT collection exhibits that precise moment when the VLTRAMARINI, those beyond the sea, finally arrive at an unidentified coastline.