From March 25 to December 31, 2026, the Reus Museum presents an exhibition that looks to the future from the roots of the past. What if Gaudí had AI? is not just an exhibition about architecture or technology: it is a reflection on how major technical changes transform trades, creativity and the way we understand the world.
With a futuristic aesthetic and an approach far removed from traditional exhibitions dedicated to Antoni Gaudí, the proposal focuses on his origins and his unique way of creating. The son of a family of boilermakers, Gaudí grew up surrounded by metal, shapes and artisanal work. This relationship with manual labor deeply marked his vision and his ability to imagine new structures when no one else was doing so.
The exhibition uses this idea to establish a direct parallel with the present. If the Industrial Revolution transformed workshops and turned many artisans into workers of repetitive processes, today artificial intelligence is once again shaking up the world of work and creativity. The tools, workbenches and objects from the museum's ethnographic collections serve as a reminder that every great technological revolution involves losses, adaptations and new trades.
One of the most revealing examples is that of the old boilermakers linked to distillation, who had to reinvent themselves with the arrival of gas and running water in homes. Emblematic spaces such as Casa Navàs bear witness to this capacity for adaptation that accompanies each change of era.
But the exhibition does not remain in the memory of the past. It also looks forward. Through reinterpretations of Gaudí's buildings generated with artificial intelligence, the visitor enters into an inevitable debate: can a machine create as Gaudí would? Is AI capable of replacing human intuition, sensitivity or imagination? Or is it just a new tool at the service of creativity?
The proposal avoids apocalyptic discourses and opts for a clear idea: technology transforms processes, but the criterion remains human. Just as the printing press, the steam engine, electricity or the internet redefined the society of their time, artificial intelligence will mark a before and an after. The difference, the exhibition suggests, will depend on how we decide to use it.
You may be
interested
...
