Under the firelight, the ash shines like glitter
Antoni Hervàs

Every night, just before dawn, a humming voice would creep up from the street and enter the room whispering a beautiful song that woke me up. I liked to lie in bed, listening to that voice that lurked in the doorway flickering the flame of a lighter on a piece of foil. The dimmer it got, the more I wished it would never fade.

Activation: 16 November 2024 at Köttinspektionen, Uppsala

(EN)

Antoni Hervàs delves into Barcelona's underground and follows the trail of a group of shooting stars during the 70s and 80s. A time when the pressure of the current political system forced them to withdraw from the stages where they forged their legend while demanding sexual equality. Instead, they took up a continuous (silent) struggle for survival and resistance to disappearance.

This passionate story avoids nostalgia, claiming the construction of memory from the current practice of its protagonists. By recomposing vestiges of past actions, an archive of multidisciplinary resistance emerges and just like the people it refers to, it must face a constant struggle for survival. This is an eternal story of love and desire, of strength, life, laughter, wounds, scars, ashes and fire. The construction of a myth that is both local and universal.

Antoni Hervàs (Barcelona 1981) studied Fine Arts at the Universitat de Barcelona (2006). His solo exhibitions include “Time Machines. Redrawing the Past and Fabulating the Future in Prison” at Centre d’arts Santa Monica, Barcelona (2024); “The Awakening” at Human Resources, Los Angeles (2023) and at The Green Parrot, Barcelona (2022); “Copacabana” at The RYDER Projects, Madrid (2021); “Sausages” at OKELA, Bilbao (2021); “The Rubbery” at 1646, Den Haag (2017); and “El Misterio de Caviria” at La Capella, Barcelona (2016). He has participated in numerous group exhibitions at institutions such as Halfhouse, Barcelona; CCCB, Barcelona; MACBA, Barcelona; Botín Centre, Santander; La Casa Encendida, Madrid; or Fabra I Coats, Barcelona. In addition, he has curated shows and performative events like “La pintura del futur” at MAC, Mataró (2018); “GIMMICK I” & “II” at Sant Andreu Contemporani, Barcelona (2017); “Cuero amanecer” with Clara Lopez Menendez at Human Resources, LA (2024); “Mercuri Splash” with David Bestué, for Miró Foundation (2015). Hervàs is currently a fellow at the Royal Academy of Spain in Rome (2024-25) and has been resident at Tom of Finland Foundation, Los Angeles; La Escocesa, Barcelona; Gasworks, London; the 18th Street Arts Center, Los Angeles; Hangar, Barcelona. In 2016, he won the Premi Ciutat de Barcelona d’Arts Visuals.

More information here.

More information about the activation and the collaboration with Köttinspektionen Dans here.