Director of LABoral
Pablo de Soto (Gijón, 1977) has more than 20 years of international experience in ideation and management of interdisciplinary artistic projects that bring an integrative approach to 21st century culture and the transcendental transformations of the digital era and the ecological transition.
His work in the field of contemporary art practices has been recognised with the international awards ARTEC from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, LAB_Cyberspaces, DKV LABoral, Elinor Ostrom from the University of Buenos Aires, and artist residencies at Tokyo Wonder Site and Cairo Townhouse Gallery.
He is co-founder of hackitectura.net (2002-2011) a team of artists, hackers and activists, whose work has been exhibited in prestigious international exhibitions including ZKM, LABoral, National Museum of Contemporary Art of Greece or BIACS YOUniverse, curated by Peter Weibel.
He has carried out programmes at Matadero Madrid Programa de Estudios Críticos, LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial, SESC São Paulo, Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo, London Chelsea College of Arts, or the Centre de Cultura Contemporánea de Valencia, among others.
He holds a degree in Architecture from the University of Seville, a Master in Architecture from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and a PhD in Communication and Culture from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. He has been a lecturer (University of Umea, Federal University of Paraíba, AA Visiting School Melbourne School of Design) and is the author of 28 publications including books, academic articles, book chapters and monographs. He has written for several national media including CTXT, ElDiario.es or La Nueva España.
He has been a guest lecturer at Post City Lab Seoul organised by Ars Electronica, Creative Time Summit Miami, Tate Modern, Royal Academy of Arts London, MACBA, CCCB, MediaLab Prado or the Het Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam. His work has been quoted in El País, El Mundo, Liberation, RTVE Metropolis, RTVE tres14 or We-make-money-not-art.
In the field of cultural project management and participation in local, national and international networks of cultural collaboration and communication, he is a member of the art platform Translocalia with nodes in London and Barcelona. He has been a member of the Selection Committee of the European Society for Environmental History Award and co-initiator of the citizens’ platform Puxa LABoral. In the field of economic management and fundraising for cultural projects, he was a partner of WWB Sociedad Cooperativa Andaluza for 4 years, and was even commissioned for an installation of art, architecture and digital technologies for the Future en Seine Festival in Paris. He was principal investigator of the Meipi Asturias project (Plan Avanza of the Ministry of Industry) and associate investigator of the WikiPlaza project (IUACC, Centro de Estudios Andaluces).
He has a wide knowledge of the current artistic context in Asturias, being speaker in 2021 at the First Seminar Acuerdos/Desacuerdos Un diálogo sobre la cultura y política en Gijón/Xixón, organised by the Ateneo Obrero. He was a guest expert at the round table La Democracia algorítmica (LABoral Centro de Arte). Previously, he won the first LAB_Joven experimenta prize at LABoral, presented the short film From Cairo to Gaza at the 2009 Gijón Film Festival (Esbilla section) and was a guest artist at the 2010 LEV Festival.