Strambotic Galley

The Cocollona

Quim Hereu turns to estrambotisme to present a woman trapped between two realities: that of obedience and that of freedom. Here, the rauxa of transformation breaks through the seny of imposed order.

The Cocollona*—a figure from a Girona legend—is no longer nun nor monster: she is a living metaphor for the right to be different, to grow, and to fly beyond what we were told we could become.

*The legend of the Cocollona comes from Girona, Catalonia. According to the tale, she was a nun who was punished by being locked away in a convent for rebelling against its strict rules. Over time, she transformed into a half-nun, half-crocodile creature with butterfly wings. She is said to live in the Onyar River and only appears during quiet nights. The legend symbolizes repression, transformation, and the desire for freedom.

This is Quim Hereu’s self-portrait, where he depicts himself as blind, deaf, and mute.
The work is painted in oil on linen canvas, although its technique resembles watercolor.
The Medes Islands appear—an iconic landmark of the Empordà region that plays a key role both in his artistic journey and his personal life. It is in this region that he sets The Strambotic Birth of Venus, one of the paintings that make up the Visual Manifesto of Estrambotism.
This painting is part of the book Legends of Girona, where Quim Hereu illustrates the legends of his hometown, reinterpreting them through his distinctive visual language.

The painting offers an eccentric and imaginary vision of the city of Barcelona.
The sea emerges from the Sagrada Família and expands until it floods Park Güell, defying spatial logic and evoking a city submerged in its own imagination.
The work is part of a series dedicated to a mosquito: The 10 Cities. A series of 10 paintings based on 10 cities around the world visited by a mosquito inside its corpinnat* bubble.
This fragile, flying creature acts as an external observer and reveals an unusual perspective of each place, filtered through the subjectivity of the mosquito’s neural system.
These ten cities were visited by Quim Hereu in real life.
*Corpinnat is a quality sparkling wine produced in the Penedès region of Catalonia, Spain. The name comes from the Catalan words “cor” (heart) and “pinnat” (from Penedès), meaning “the heart of Penedès.”