Fair warning, I have to admit that I'm obsessed with this Fallas figure by Valencian street artist Escif. It began when I saw the original sketches for the figure commissioned by the city of Valencia, for Fallas 2020.
Fallas in the summer is something that's never happened before (as far as we know), and to get into the spirit, we went to the 2021 Ninot Exhibit, held at the Marina.
We decided to get in touch with Fallas artist Vicente Domínguez, in advance, and ask if we could stop by his workshop.
Upon seeing pictures of the Hung Galaxy show at the City of Arts and Sciences, I initially thought the Ninot exhibition had arrived early this year. The colorful, cartoony figures would fit right into the annual pre-Fallas event.
On March 10th, 2020, Fallas was cancelled, due to the CoVID-19 pandemic. This hadn't happened since the Spanish Civil War, and was something we barely considered plausible. I mean, the celebrations were already underway! In fact that plantà of the big figures had already begun! But now, it was all over. Valencia was in shock... as were we. That very day, we went to see the mascletà as usual, not having the slightest idea that it would…
Ninots are the smaller figures which make up the large Fallas monuments, and every commission sends their best one to the Exhibition. Visiting gives you a sense of the year's popular themes and styles