0109 Astral Collection

Solo exhibition
Atos Arde
24.11.2023

Atos Arde/Pol Gilbert (Málaga 1999) is an illustrator and interdisciplinary artist, who, since his childhood has been travelling back and forth between Barcelona and the Garraf region. Moving from the city to his hometown Sant Pere de Ribes at the age of fifteen, Pol began to experiment with different mediums, diverging from traditional graffiti to a more abstract language. Since 2021, Pol has been part of a workshop amongst various artists and creatives in the Poble-sec neighborhood, where he oscillates between different techniques and mediums within his work. In Astral Collection, Pol Gilbert diverges from his role as an artist and enters a fantasy world in which he incarnates himself as the ‘Astral Collector’- a character he has been developing for the last two years.

Throughout this journey he has shared ideas, projects, and processes with other colleagues of celestial exploration; the star blacksmith Mateo Prado (1999) and the light hunter Tomás González (1998). Beyond the never-ending astral research, Pol continues to perfect his pictorial language, continuously revisiting the imaginary that has accompanied him.

The space at 200CENT is transformed into an observatory which hosts Pol Gilbert’s star collection. The artist is transformed into a hunter and taxidermist, the collector of stars throughout time and space. The astral collector’s work process is divided into five stages, from the first sighting of the star until its dispersal, through adaptation, documentation, and contemplation of the celestial body.

Through various adaptations of mediums and techniques Pol has vibrantly created a narrative for the stars and his fantasy, whether that be on the architecture of buildings in the form of graffiti or the architecture of the human body in the form of tattoos and we are very excited to be hosting Astral Collection as our concluding show of the year.

Find out more about Atos Arde and his work here