Draft:Josep Piñol Curto
{{Short description|Catalan visual artist}}
{{Draft topics|biography}}
{{AfC topic|blp}}
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[[File:Joseppinol.jpg|thumb|Josep Piñol.
Photo by: Quim Melchor]]
{{Infobox person
| name = Josep Piñol Curto
| birth_date = 10 May 1994
| birth_place = Tivenys, Catalonia, Spain
| occupation = Visual artist
| known_for = La Santa Baldana, staged photography, video art
}}
Josep Piñol Curto (born 10 May 1994) is a Catalan visual artist whose work spans staged photography, video art, and immersive installations. He is best known for the 2024 performative project La Santa Baldana, which received national media attention in Spain and was covered in major outlets such as El País, La Vanguardia, El Mundo (Spain), and Diari de Tarragona.{{cite news |title=El poder de la Santa Baldana |url=https://elpais.com/quadern/art-i-arquitectura/2024-12-08/el-poder-de-la-santa-baldana.html |work=El País |date=8 December 2024 |access-date=22 June 2025}}{{cite news |title=Kafka, Fargo i la Baldana |url=https://www.lavanguardia.com/vida/20240618/9740362/kafka-fargo-terres-l-ebre.html |work=La Vanguardia |date=18 June 2024 |access-date=22 June 2025}}{{cite news |title=La gran bacanal de la Santa Baldana |url=https://www.elmundo.es/cronica/2024/12/12/67599a49e85ecef61f8b45c4.html |work=El Mundo |date=12 December 2024 |access-date=22 June 2025}}{{cite news |title=Un juez de Tortosa investiga a los responsables de la Santa Baldana |url=https://www.diaridetarragona.com/ebre/211755/un-juez-de-tortosa-investiga-a-los-responsables-de-la-santa-baldana-por-sacar-a-la-virgen-rodeada-de-morcillas-bf21067666.html |work=Diari de Tarragona |date=9 December 2024 |access-date=22 June 2025}} His emotionally resonant and socially critical work explores themes such as human suffering, ecology, and the symbolic reinterpretation of culture.
Biography
= Early life =
Josep Piñol Curto was born on 10 May 1994 in Tivenys, a small village in the Terres de l’Ebre region of Catalonia. He grew up in a deeply traditional, religious environment infused with Catholic rituals and local customs. As a child, he served as a monaguillo (altar boy), which later informed his symbolic approach to ritual in art.
Raised in a conservative rural setting, Piñol has spoken about the tension he felt between cultural conformity and his emerging identity. During public interviews—such as the conversation cycle ‘‘CK Que Sé Jo’’—he described feeling creatively stifled in adolescence, which motivated his search for more expansive and introspective artistic forms.{{cite web |title=CK Que Sé Jo – Josep Piñol |url=https://tarragonajove.org/activitats/ck-que-se-jo-cicle-de-converses-2/ |website=Tarragona Jove |access-date=22 June 2025}}
= Artistic career =
Piñol’s early work included the photographic project Senegal S‑12, inaugurated on 15 March 2014 at the Museu de Tortosa. The exhibition, previously shown at Barcelona’s Antiga Fàbrica Damm and Tarragona’s Tinglado 1, featured large-format images depicting daily life in Senegal—such as wrestling, agriculture, fishing, and youth football. It included text contributions by Oriol Gracià.{{cite web |title=Inauguració de l'exposició Senegal S‑12 de Josep Piñol |url=https://www.museudetortosa.cat/premsa/noticies/inauguracio-de-lexposicio-senegal-s-12-de-josep-pinol |website=Museu de Tortosa |access-date=22 June 2025}}
In 2021, Piñol and artist Greta Díaz Moreau co‑created the exhibition La Muda{{cite web
|title=Així serà "La Muda", l'exposició multisensorial de Josep Piñol i Greta Díaz a Lo Pati
|website=Marfanta
|date=25 February 2021
|url=https://www.marfanta.com/2021/02/25/aixi-sera-la-muda-lexposicio-multisensorial-de-josep-pinol-i-greta-diaz-a-lo-pati/
|access-date=22 June 2025
}} at Lo Pati – Centre d’Art Terres de l’Ebre. Conceived over nearly two years at La Warhol, the exhibition featured theatrical, richly detailed photo sets. It included contributions from cultural figures like Sílvia Pérez Cruz, Aida Folch, Toni Segarra, Roberto Oliván, and Itziar Castro. Critics praised its exploration of metamorphosis, silence, and transformation, leading to its schedule being extended.{{cite web |title=La Muda: un canvi de pell fotogràfic |url=https://lopati.cat/es/activitats/ano/2021/pagina/la-muda-un-canvi-de-pell-fotografic/520 |website=Lo Pati |access-date=22 June 2025}}
= ''La Santa Baldana'' =
Piñol’s most widely publicized work is La Santa Baldana (2024), a performative intervention that received national attention for its use of religious iconography and folkloric symbolism. The central figure is a fictional saint holding morcillas (blood sausages), prompting reflection on anthropocentrism, spiritual decay, and ecological responsibility.
Presented at the Aplec de la Santa Baldana in Tivenys, the piece sparked national media coverage and legal scrutiny, including a complaint filed by the Fundación Española de Abogados Cristianos.
Piñol defended the intervention, stating that “religious imagery is not reserved for any specific group; it is an integral part of our identity and collective culture.”
Following the controversy, he extended the work into a digital platform described by El Punt Avui as “refusing to give in” and “opening a virtual space for worship.”{{cite news |title=Santa Baldana no es rendeix i ara obre un espai de culte virtual |url=https://www.elpuntavui.cat/cultura/article/19-cultura/2485626-santa-baldana-no-es-rendeix-i-ara-obre-un-espai-de-culte-virtual.html |work=El Punt Avui |date=December 2024 |access-date=22 June 2025}}
= ''Fusilamiento del 12 de octubre'' =
In October 2024, Piñol unveiled Fusilamiento del 12 de octubre at the Aplec Saó art festival in Alt Pirineu. This symbolic shooting range invited viewers to fire at an artificial landscape with a slingshot, critiquing environmental destruction and colonial celebration by questioning “human supremacy, exploitation, and control over nature”.{{cite web |title=Josep Piñol qüestiona la supremacia humana sobre la natura |url=https://www.aguaita.cat/cultura-i-mitjans/artista-ebrenc-josep-pinol-questiona-supremacia-humana-sobre-natura-en-intervencio-artistica-aplec-sao.html |website=Aguaita.cat |access-date=22 June 2025}} The intervention, coinciding with the National Day of Spain, served as a symbolic stand against erasure of historical resistance.