Antoni Hervàs at The Ryder

Artist: Antoni Hervàs

Exhibition title: Copacabana

Venue: The Ryder, Madrid, Spain

Date: April 17 – June 5, 2021

Photography: Pablo Brecha / All images copyright and courtesy of the artist and The Ryder, Madrid/London

Several worlds collide in Antoni Hervàs’ first solo exhibition in Madrid – worlds that are effervescent and flash bright in spectacular universes, and ones that exude a kind of freedom that exists only in the clandestine margins of our very existence. Copla, cabaret, mythology and transformism diverge on this stage of papier-mâché and cardboard, conjuring up memories of familiar emotions and past times. Come and see, enjoy this wild carnival and the glitter of sequins and all that is hidden in their reflections, welcome to Copacabana!

Presenting his latest chapter of the long-standing investigation carried out by the artist in the exhibition El Misterio de Caviria at La Capella, Barcelona, in Copacabana one finds not nostalgia but quite the opposite. Here Hervàs celebrates stories that shine every time they are told, vagrant myths that belong to no one and that will take over The RYDER, staging a completely unique and powerful show.

The Copacabana was one of Barcelona’s most notorious cabaret venues, immortalised thanks to Jacinto Esteva and his memorable scene in the 1961 film, Lejos de Los árboles. In one of the sequences, the drag queen Margarita, dressed in a costume of ruffles made of newspaper, invites the spectators to set themselves on fire – providing a violent catalyst for her bewitching dance in which she attempts to smother the flames with her wild movements.

Fast forward to the modern day, a car park belonging to the Generalitat of the Department of Culture in Barcelona now occupies the space on which the legendary cabaret once stood. On the occasion of the exhibition at La Capella, Hervàs organised a spectacle in this car park with the aim of reviving the Copacabana’s former splendour. For this, two performances were planned. The first was by Juan de la Cruz El Rosillo, who had performed in the original venue, and the second, starring Gerard López, the Spanish gymnastics champion, was held in the Colón pelota court. Combining these two seemingly unrelated actions, the artist highlighted the legal and social complications that affected both of them, as both transvestism and male gymnastics suffered, at different times, censorship and repudiation. The unwavering passions of El Rosillo and Lopez were spirited acts of resistance in the face of a society that could not, and did not want to understand.

This series of performances resulted in a video made in collaboration with Ainara Elgoibar, which is one of the driving forces behind Copacabana. Accompanying the video are several works composed of recycled cardboard, which engender the gallery space to create folding monuments that are at once intimate yet lavish – transforming The RYDER into ground zero of what Hervàs calls ‘copla-terror’.

These celebratory devices form a scenography that invites the visitor to become part of a show that is reminiscent of old underground cabarets, where extraordinary demonstrations of magic were revealed by the simplest of tricks, and yet carried with them immense transformative potential. Voices such as those of Gilda Love can be heard among these polychrome landscapes through a video made in collaboration with the film director Eduardo Gión, a story of pain that dances among vivid colours and to the rhythm of castanets.

These nomadic structures are allies of the great Greek friezes for their powerful storytelling, while at the same time their drawings are themselves ones that seek to understand the technique as a form of independent research within an expanded emotional framework. As such Hervàs’ drawings operate as a kind of performance that evokes human actions that distort our own spatial and bodily autonomy.

This elastic approach to drawing allows the artist to expand upon a narrative that connects realities and moments which traverse across different understandings of space and time. The action of drawing itself is manifested through a series of new works made specifically for the show, that act as records for the very exhibition space they occupy. Conjuring the magic of past experiences, these drawings bring to life into the affections and memories that Hervàs has collected over the course of his storied career.

The RYDER invites you to step into the fantastical world of Antoni Hervàs and take part in his metamorphic ritual, one that transforms the space into a temple that is as epic yet fragile as the characters that it honours. Let yourself be carried away by the rebellious splendour, by the beat of the castanets, and by the colliding universes of drag and dance that permeate through the cardboards that, like all great things, are limited only by their transience.

Antoni Hervàs, Copacabana. Installation view at The RYDER, Madrid 2021

Antoni Hervàs, Margarita, 2016. Maillot con estampado digital, cristales de Swarovski, pedrería, aro de gimnasia rítmica, cinta de gimnasia rítmica y cinta adhesiva con purpurina. 130 x 45 x 45 cm

Antoni Hervàs, La Lucha, 2016. Cartón, acrílico, posca, pintura de spray. 310 x 180 x 100 cm

Antoni Hervàs, Copacabana, 2020. Cartón, cola blanca, papel de periódico, acrílico, impresiones de contenido relacionado con la prohibición de la gimnasia rítmica masculina, vídeo Copacabana (2019, Edición 1 de 4), televisión y altavoces. 187 × 116 × 116 cm

Antoni Hervàs, Gerard, 2021. Lápiz de color, bolígrafo, tippex y marco de papel maché. 28 x 35,5 cm

Antoni Hervàs, Tercera Luna, 2021. Lápiz de color, bolígrafo, tippex y marco de papel maché. 30 x 42 cm

Antoni Hervàs, Copacabana. Installation view at The RYDER, Madrid 2021

Antoni Hervàs, Copacabana. Installation view at The RYDER, Madrid, 2021. With Gilda Love (2016). Vídeo, 12’26». Actúa Gilda Love. Colaboración con Eduardo Gión y Rodado en el Antic Teatre, Barcelona Edición de 4.

Antoni Hervàs, Pierrot y las lemnias, 2021. Lápiz de color, bolígrafo y tippex. 28 x 35,5 cm