"We go to the realm of death by the way of love."
Ruben Dario

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FALLAS 2020

A Brief Look Back at the Fallas That

Never Happened /

Una breve mirada retrospectiva a las Fallas que nunca ocurrieron

Model of the 2020 Falla for the City's main Plaza del Ayuntamiento. The idea of tranquility in the midst of chaos?

The Falla with its body in the background waiting to be fully assembled. (Photo by others.)

Above, the situation the day after Falles 2020 was cancelled. It is not clear who added the mask.

For a few more days, the head of the Falla remained as shown above. The base was burned per tradition in a non-publicly-announced ceremony to avoid crowds gathering. On 23 March, the remaining head and shoulders were unceremoniously hauled away, reportedly to be re-assembled for a re-scheduled Falles 2020.

Falles 2020 never happened. Fallas 2021 also did not happen on its sacred days of March15-19. This was not only a disaster for Valencia's religious - celebrating as it does the festival of San José, but an enormous economic blow. In recent years, particularly after the Falles was designated as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2016, the festival has drawn upwards of 1,000,000 tourists to view the week-long celebration.

Not only was the tourist industry devastated, but the large building industry totally dependent on creating, manufacturing, delivering, and installing the Falles was frozen. The 2020 statues needed to be burned in the finale of the festival per tradition in order for the next year's monument design and construction could begin. This obviously did not happen.

Looking toward a fuller world-wide recovery in March 2022, the City decided to mount a mini-2021 Fallas from September 1-5. Not a Fallas as such, but a celebration of some of the "Actions" of Falles, including the assembly of the Falles monuments around the city and their burning.

FALLAS 2021

PREPARATIONS / PREPARATIVOS

PORTIONS OF THE

REASSEMBLED FALLES /

PORCIONES DE LAS FALLAS REMONTADADS

As a friend mentioned to me, the Dalí masks are a direct reference to Casa de Papel (Money Heist), one of the most popular TV shows in Spain.

....and another.

"David de Limón and his ninjas are part of the urban landscape of Valencia. It is difficult to tturn a corner or enter an alley without finding one of his characters dressed in black, hidden, hooded." (https://www.valenciablog.com/exposicion-de-david-de-limon-en-valencia-acid-street-art/) His work as a street artist has morphed into that of a gallery artist.