Henrik Adolfsson. Coup de grâce

'Coup de grâce' is an expression that, in bullfighting, refers to the final lunge that puts the animal out of his misery. Consequently it has become an expression used to refer to a gesture or an act that is the culmination of something. In this series of collages, Swedish illustrator Henrik Adolfsson, aka Pancake, who lives in Barcelona, portrays a bullfighter whose career and legacy have ended. Like the moon, he depends on the sun’s light to shine. When removed from the spotlight, the matador is nobody. He is a man refusing to let go, only surviving on the thought that he was once 'the greatest'. But where is he now? When the roar of the audiences quietens down, when glory fades, what remains of the hero when heroism goes out of fashion? Like all of us, he struggles to grow accustomed to daily melancholy – the periphery darkness of existence. And it's here we find him, in the 'half life' that exists just off the stage.