Exhibitions
Pep Vidal builds an experimental retrospective between cabin and thesis at La Panera
The first solo exhibition by a living artist curated by ChatGPT transforms La Panera into a laboratory of memory, experiment and artificial intelligence.
Pep Vidal. Palíndrome. From a cabin to finish the thesis to… a thesis to finish the cabin functions as an extended thesis and, at the same time, as a retrospective that traces the artist's mid-career trajectory. The exhibition can be visited at La Panera in Lleida until February 1, 2026, before moving to Brussels to continue its tour. It includes elements of the Pedernal project, for which Vidal obtained the Leonardo Grant in Plastic Arts in 2023, a key project in the recent evolution of his work.
One of the most innovative aspects is that this is the first solo exhibition of a living artist curated by ChatGPT. According to Vidal, this collaboration “opens up new ways of reading and organizing” the work, allowing visitors to discover it from a hybrid perspective, where human creativity and artificial intelligence dialogue. The combination of artistic career, academic research and experimentation with new technologies makes this show a unique experience within the contemporary cultural landscape.
Vidal, born in Barcelona, is an artist and scientist. A graduate in Mathematics from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, he has focused his curiosity on infinitesimal calculus, topology and infinite series. A doctorate in Physical Sciences from the UAB and the ALBA synchrotron, his doctoral thesis addresses the development of algorithms to increase the precision of instruments in particle accelerators. From this research he draws two fundamental conclusions: “there are extremely complex and sensitive systems; and I am not interested in research where personal and vital experience is not linked to the process itself”.
When La Panera proposed a retrospective, Vidal decided to gather everything he had in his workshop to reconstruct the 2014 cabin: tools, unpublished projects, pieces that have traveled and returned, and materials from prototypes. “I wanted the public to be able to enter this space and interact with all the objects,” he explains. The cabin thus functions as a living archive and refuge for the work, a place where past, present, and future meet and unfold before visitors.
The result is a piece that is both memory and experiment, archive and projection, where each element retains the imprint of a previous creative process. The room becomes a measurement system, a laboratory where error, repetition and constant research have the same relevance as the final work. Curated by ChatGPT, the exhibition proposes a new way of reading and organizing artistic practice, transforming the visit into an experience where creation, documentation and reflection merge in the same space.
Next Saturday the 13th, a three-way dialogue will be held at La Panera in Lleida that will explore the limits of curatorship, with the participation of the artist, Glòria Picazo and ChatGPT. The conversation will address three simultaneous perspectives: artistic practice, institutional perspective and hybrid practices.
