Did you experience a big disappointment in 1998, when Geri Halliwell, -also known as “Ginger Spice”- left the band? Are you still waiting for a convincing explanation to heal your wounds? Do you want to relive your unconditional fanatic nature through a complete immersive experience? You’re lucky: the phenomenon of this moment is called “Space Girls”, and its rebellious component is “Space Nihilista”.

Raisa Maudit presents at Swinton Gallery an ambitious work creating a fictitious famous girl band -inspired by the “Spice Girls”- to develop a critical and intensely personal speech. The story starts when the main character of the band “Space Nihilista” quits, an event that involves a whole series of effects for the rest of the band members. Each builds and freely adopts an icon of femininity identified with his person: “Empoderada”, “Vendetta”, “Hiupersensible” and “Degenerada”. The emergence of a strong stereotyped female image was one of the major consequences of the phenomenon generated by the original group during 90’s: launching of a daring woman, proud of her sex and raising her own flag. Raisa Maudit is interested on “Spice Girls” because they disseminated ideologies founded on counterculture and feminism – showing the roles of women and their own wishes- that became a commercial product consumed mainly by children and adolescents. Girls followed day by day the ideal promulgated by capitalism: “Best friend forever” and playful appropriation of a series of female icons that were on sale.

Like “Spice Girls” can be a mirror to analyze the social structure of a generation in the late 90’s, Maudit brings to the gallery a set of issues related to the current social situation in general and herself in particular. The European Union, feminism, transsexuality, the relationship between women  or anarchism are some of the issues that fly over the entire show.

The project, which has been developed with the collaboration of intimacy people in several degrees, contains a huge quantity of materials -photos, posters, audio and music recordings, articles and a lot of objects for collectors- with a main video piece. During this video piece different characters linked to the band appear: the group manager, fans, Space Nihilista`s family and, of course, all members of the band. The plot is the continuity of Space Nihilista in the group. Lots of documented interviews and other events of the band reveal a much richer history, full of mysteries, gossip, envy, madness, corruption and, above all, friendship.

Nerea Ubieto

Curator