GIMNÀS DE CÒMIC PERFORMANCE + TONI HERVÀS

GIMNÀS DE CÒMIC PERFORMANCE COMIC

An experimental creative laboratory bringing together 11 people to explore the many ways in which the body is present in comics: the artist’s body, the reader’s body, the characters’ bodies… The intersection of comics and performance gives rise to a host of practices and forms of knowledge that shift the focus away from comics as a publishing medium towards the bodies that inhabit this realm, exploring all the new possibilities that emerge from combining drawing, visual storytelling and the performing arts.

This collective laboratory made its first public appearance in 2025 at the Fabra i Coats Auditorium as part of GRAF, the festival of comics and self-publishing. For this edition of Sâlmon, the group will share a sequence of exercises that expand the notion of comics and take it into other territories, including improvisation and the photo novel, with the body always at the heart of the experience.

Coordination Francesc Ruiz and Mery Cuesta / With the impulse of Càtedra de Recerca i Experimentació en Còmic Finestres-Elisava (CREC) / Members Alicia Portabella, Ascensión Martínez, Dafne Ortiz, Eva Blanch, Fiorella Briz, Francesc Ruiz, Julie Réau, Marta Cartu, Mery Cuesta, Mica Negrete and Núr Muntané

LA BELLA HELENA, by Toni Hervàs

After taking the first bite of the most hotly contested and controversial apple at Sâlmon 2025, the next episode of this mythological classic arrives courtesy of Toni Hervàs and Evripidis Sabatis, ready to satisfy the appetites of those who were left wanting more. The piece is an unabashed interlude in this reworking of Puigserver’s successful 1979 production of La bella Helena. This form of contemporary cabaret draws on satire, celebration, double entendre and disguise – devices which, under the guise of entertainment, have long allowed people to conceal themselves and express themselves with impunity.

Toni Hervàs’s work grows out of the fanzine, exploring drawing as both a medium and a methodology for archiving and transmitting the collective memory of communities that have emerged on the margins. His solo projects include El misteri de Caviria at La Capella; Sausages at Okela; The Awakening at both The Green Parrot and Human Resources (LA); Màquines del temps at Centre d’Arts Santa Mònica and Las Cigarreras; as well as group exhibitions at TEA, La Casa Encendida, CA2M, MACBA, CCCB and FKV. Among other awards, he received the 2016 Ciutat de Barcelona Prize.