Estampa (Collective founded 2006, Barcelona)
Models of Seeing (2024-2025)

Models of Seeing explores the friction between human vision and AI computer vision models. A collection of historical photographs has been analyzed using YOLO9000, a computer vision model that has been trained using a dataset of 9,000 words and millions of images. What does YOLO9000 see? AI models have a compulsive side; for them, seeing means to project meaning without rest. Labels are automatically assigned and a predetermined worldview is overlapped onto images. This collection of photographs shows glimpses of when this operation fails due to a poetic interference. The goal of data extraction is not achieved and another model of seeing emerges, one in which the meaning of images is not closed but opened up by words.

Ekphrasis (2025)

Ekphrasis is a video installation (6 min.) in which the collective continues a line of research exploring the new algorithmic connections between words and images established by computer vision models. In Ekphrasis, fragments from various films such as Agnès Varda’s Documenteur (1981), Jacques Tourneur’s Cat People (1942) and others are subjected to a complex and multi-layered algorithmic description process: objects, faces and emotions are detected and classified by object recognition systems, while image-to-text models are used to generate detailed descriptions. The piece draws attention to the processes of data mining in the digital world and to the poetic potential inherent in the radical impossibility of translating images into words and words into images. Ekphrasis was produced for the exhibition The World Through AI (2025) at Jeu de Paume.

Estampa is an artistic collective of programmers, filmmakers and researchers from Barcelona, founded in 2006. Their practice is grounded in a critical and archaeological approach to audiovisual and digital technologies, with a particular focus on archival and experimental media. Since 2017, one of their main areas of research has been the exploration of the uses and ideologies of artificial intelligence. This interest began with the project programmatically titled The Bad Pupil. Critical Pedagogy for Artificial Intelligences. Their more recent installations have been shown at Jeu de Paume’s exhibition The World Through AI (2025) curated by Antonio Somaini.

Recent solo exhibitions include: Modern Art Oxford, Oxford (2025), Chiquita Room, Barcelona (2024). Recent group exhibitions include: Jeu de Paume, Paris (2025), La Conciergerie, Paris (2025), CCCB, Barcelona (2024), ArtScience Museum, Singapore (2023), La Virreina, Barcelona (2023). Works are held in collections including: Banco Sabadell Art Collection and Mataró Museum. Awarded Ciutat de Barcelona for Digital Culture 2024 by Barcelona City Council.

Chiquita Room is a contemporary art center in Barcelona that works simultaneously as a gallery, an artist book publisher, and a residence for artists. With a committed curatorial approach, the space is dedicated to accompanying artists along their projects, in order to reflect relevant issues through a critical, innovative, and collective lens. The motivation is to involve the audience in the understanding of art as a source of knowledge and beauty, expanding their interpretations of reality. This is possible thanks to a team of good people who work skillfully and passionately, taking care of the processes and the details.