Bio
Josep Piñol Curto (Tivenys, 1994) is a conceptual and performance artist whose recent practice situates itself in the fissure between the logics of the art field and the devices of institutional legitimation that operate both within and beyond it. Through operations of mimicry and displacement, he intervenes critically in the system, dismantling and reconfiguring its languages from within. Eschewing any appeal to consolation, his works rest on discomfort as a place of truth.
His early pieces, installation-based and scenographic, unfold as an exercise in revelation, a persistent inquiry into what lies behind the surface of the visible: the mute zones of experience, the invisible mechanisms that articulate subjectivity and shape the structures that sustain it. Untethered from any promise of redemption, Piñol explores the starkness of encountering the irreparable: that which hurts, persists, and resists transformation.
His work develops as an introspective drift that traces the affective, cultural, and unconscious layers that compose personal memory, and as a critical gesture that interrogates the power narratives configuring the present and conditioning collective experience. The body, both individual and collective, appears as a surface of inscription and conflict, where tensions between the somatic and the normative condense, between embodied pain and its forms of representation.
Piñol began his career in the field of photojournalism with the solo exhibition Senegal S-12 (2012), presented at Tinglado No. 1 in Tarragona, and since then has shifted his practice toward conceptual and performative languages. Exhibitions such as La Muda (2021) at the Centre d’Art Lo Pati, and the performance Santa Baldana (2024), presented at the 7th Forum on Culture and Ruralities of the Ministry of Culture of the Government of Spain, chart an evolution from the documentary to the speculative, and from the biographical to a critical reflection on the structural.
His latest work, EVITADA, was presented in the cycle Contrariar abismos. Poéticas de escala at the Museu Habitat. The artist formalized the avoidance of his monumental work planned for Belém (Brazil). As part of a performative action at the Museu Tàpies in Barcelona, Piñol signed before a notary his definitive renunciation of materializing the work, resulting in an avoidance certificate acquired by a private collector. EVITADA, curated by Roberta Bosco, confirms a shift in Piñol’s practice toward conceptual positions, in a work that, through a gesture critical of the carbon-offset market, generates 57,765 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent only to cancel them afterward. This work opens a path in which art moves between the contractual, the commercial agreement, and the act of renunciation.
Since 2022, Piñol has worked in his warehouse-studio in Tivenys, conceived not only as a production space but also as a device for research, installation, and rehearsal. His life and practice are currently split between Madrid, Barcelona, and the Ebro Delta.
Josep Piñol Curto (Tivenys, 1994) is a conceptual and performance artist whose recent practice situates itself in the fissure between the logics of the art field and the devices of institutional legitimation that operate both within and beyond it. Through operations of mimicry and displacement, he intervenes critically in the system, dismantling and reconfiguring its languages from within. Eschewing any appeal to consolation, his works rest on discomfort as a place of truth.
His early pieces, installation-based and scenographic, unfold as an exercise in revelation, a persistent inquiry into what lies behind the surface of the visible: the mute zones of experience, the invisible mechanisms that articulate subjectivity and shape the structures that sustain it. Untethered from any promise of redemption, Piñol explores the starkness of encountering the irreparable: that which hurts, persists, and resists transformation.
His work develops as an introspective drift that traces the affective, cultural, and unconscious layers that compose personal memory, and as a critical gesture that interrogates the power narratives configuring the present and conditioning collective experience. The body, both individual and collective, appears as a surface of inscription and conflict, where tensions between the somatic and the normative condense, between embodied pain and its forms of representation.
Piñol began his career in the field of photojournalism with the solo exhibition Senegal S-12 (2012), presented at Tinglado No. 1 in Tarragona, and since then has shifted his practice toward conceptual and performative languages. Exhibitions such as La Muda (2021) at the Centre d’Art Lo Pati, and the performance Santa Baldana (2024), presented at the 7th Forum on Culture and Ruralities of the Ministry of Culture of the Government of Spain, chart an evolution from the documentary to the speculative, and from the biographical to a critical reflection on the structural.
Josep Piñol Curto (Tivenys, 1994) is a conceptual and performance artist whose recent practice situates itself in the fissure between the logics of the art field and the devices of institutional legitimation that operate both within and beyond it. Through operations of mimicry and displacement, he intervenes critically in the system, dismantling and reconfiguring its languages from within. Eschewing any appeal to consolation, his works rest on discomfort as a place of truth.
His early pieces, installation-based and scenographic, unfold as an exercise in revelation, a persistent inquiry into what lies behind the surface of the visible: the mute zones of experience, the invisible mechanisms that articulate subjectivity and shape the structures that sustain it. Untethered from any promise of redemption, Piñol explores the starkness of encountering the irreparable: that which hurts, persists, and resists transformation.
His work develops as an introspective drift that traces the affective, cultural, and unconscious layers that compose personal memory, and as a critical gesture that interrogates the power narratives configuring the present and conditioning collective experience. The body, both individual and collective, appears as a surface of inscription and conflict, where tensions between the somatic and the normative condense, between embodied pain and its forms of representation.
Piñol began his career in the field of photojournalism with the solo exhibition Senegal S-12 (2012), presented at Tinglado No. 1 in Tarragona, and since then has shifted his practice toward conceptual and performative languages. Exhibitions such as La Muda (2021) at the Centre d’Art Lo Pati, and the performance Santa Baldana (2024), presented at the 7th Forum on Culture and Ruralities of the Ministry of Culture of the Government of Spain, chart an evolution from the documentary to the speculative, and from the biographical to a critical reflection on the structural.
Su última obra, EVITADA, fue presentada en el ciclo Contrariar abismos. Poéticas de escala del Museu Habitat. El artista formalizó la evitación de su obra monumental proyectada en Belém (Brasil). En el marco de una acción performativa en el Museu Tàpies de Barcelona, Piñol rubricó ante notario la renuncia definitiva a materializar su obra, a través de un certificado de evitación adquirido por un coleccionista privado. EVITADA, comisariada por Roberta Bosco, confirma un desplazamiento del trabajo de Piñol hacia posiciones conceptuales, en una obra que, en un gesto crítico con el mercado de compensaciones climáticas, genera 57.765 toneladas de CO2 equivalente para después cancelarlas. Esta obra abre un camino en el que el arte discurre entre lo contractual, el acuerdo mercantil y el acto de renuncia.
Desde 2022, Piñol trabaja en su nave-estudio situada en Tivenys, concebida no solo como espacio de producción, sino también como dispositivo de investigación, montaje y ensayo. Actualmente, su vida y práctica se reparten entre Madrid, Barcelona y el Delta del Ebro.
His latest work, EVITADA, was presented in the cycle Contrariar abismos. Poéticas de escala at the Museu Habitat. The artist formalized the avoidance of his monumental work planned for Belém (Brazil). As part of a performative action at the Museu Tàpies in Barcelona, Piñol signed before a notary his definitive renunciation of materializing the work, resulting in an avoidance certificate acquired by a private collector. EVITADA, curated by Roberta Bosco, confirms a shift in Piñol’s practice toward conceptual positions, in a work that, through a gesture critical of the carbon-offset market, generates 57,765 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent only to cancel them afterward. This work opens a path in which art moves between the contractual, the commercial agreement, and the act of renunciation.
Since 2022, Piñol has worked in his warehouse-studio in Tivenys, conceived not only as a production space but also as a device for research, installation, and rehearsal. His life and practice are currently split between Madrid, Barcelona, and the Ebro Delta.
His latest work, EVITADA, was presented in the cycle Contrariar abismos. Poéticas de escala at the Museu Habitat. The artist formalized the avoidance of his monumental work planned for Belém (Brazil). As part of a performative action at the Museu Tàpies in Barcelona, Piñol signed before a notary his definitive renunciation of materializing the work, resulting in an avoidance certificate acquired by a private collector. EVITADA, curated by Roberta Bosco, confirms a shift in Piñol’s practice toward conceptual positions, in a work that, through a gesture critical of the carbon-offset market, generates 57,765 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent only to cancel them afterward. This work opens a path in which art moves between the contractual, the commercial agreement, and the act of renunciation.
Since 2022, Piñol has worked in his warehouse-studio in Tivenys, conceived not only as a production space but also as a device for research, installation, and rehearsal. His life and practice are currently split between Madrid, Barcelona, and the Ebro Delta.
