WHEN THE PROTOTYPE IS MORE THAN A BEGINNING

In Poblenou, Barcelona, VASTO, the home gallery founded by Carmen Riestra, opens its new space at Pere IV 125 with a group exhibition bringing together sixteen artists, designers, architects and scenographers. On view until 26 November 2026

A prototype is usually understood as something that comes first: an early version, a test, a work still on its way towards something else. PROTOTYPES starts from a different idea: that the prototype can extend beyond this preliminary stage and remain a way of thinking and making even when a work has taken on a resolved form.

The exhibition, curated by VASTO founder Carmen Riestra and on view until 26 November 2026, brings together sixteen voices from different disciplines, languages and approaches. VASTO is a home gallery founded in Poblenou, Barcelona, at the intersection of contemporary art and collectible design: it stages exhibitions within lived environments to foster dialogue between disciplines, artists and space, and supports both emerging and established voices through long-term collaborations. Here the exhibition does not sort the works by field or medium, but places them side by side, asking what new readings might emerge from their proximity.

What matters is not how far along you are

Some works are still under test, others are resolved, and many have been shown before. What connects them is not their stage of completion, but the intentions and questions they bring into view. The focus is on how an idea keeps operating through a work’s form, function, material or relationship to space, and on the questions it leaves open.

For this reason, the display follows shared ideas, tensions and questions rather than conventional categories. The works can be read in relation to one another, without imposing a single interpretation.

A former industrial warehouse in transformation

The exhibition opens at Pere IV 125, VASTO’s new space in Barcelona, a former industrial warehouse undergoing transformation. The relationship between works and architecture shifts throughout: some pieces extend into the space, others occupy it, others establish their own spatial conditions. The building is not simply a backdrop, but part of the context through which the works are encountered and read.

The artists

The participants are Nora Aurrekoetxea, Anton Defant, Aleksandra Fixl, Esther Gatón, Lorenzo Iandelli, Jo Hyunseok, Max Milà Serra, Noëmi Orgaer with Orson van Beek, Alice Pandolfo, Mercedes Pimiento, p=0, Ritsch Sisters with Forever Studio, Naked Space, SSOP, Lana von Thorn and Alicia Vogel.

PROTOTYPES, group exhibition curated by Carmen Riestra. VASTO, Pere IV 125, Barcelona. On view until 26 November 2026.