From Athens to Valencia: an ephemeral temple for Fallas 2026

©PichiAvo (Photos by Santiago Martí)

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From Athens to Valencia: an ephemeral temple for Fallas 2026

PichiAvo presented again an installation for the Fallas of Valencia that existed for only a few days before being consumed by fire in the festival’s closing ritual; titled “Per ofrenar” (“To Offer”), the large-scale monument was commissioned by the Borrull-Socors falla and featured in the festival’s Experimental Fallas category, which highlights more conceptual and artistic proposals within the centuries-old celebration.

Installed in central Valencia, the structure took the form of a classical temple inspired by the Temple of Athena Nike in Athens, a reference that reflects the duo’s signature fusion of classical imagery with the visual language of graffiti; inside the temple, an altar constructed from surplus paper left over from the printing of the ‘Our Odyssey’ book held a perfectly balanced scale bearing two sculptural wax candles made in collaboration with Cerabella Candles, one symbolizing Classical Art and the other Graffiti.

The composition reflected the duality at the core of the artists’ practice and the idea of equilibrium between creative opposites; the monument took nearly a year to conceive and was built using traditional fallas techniques, employing wood and paper rather than the industrial materials often used in contemporary monuments; following the tradition of the Fallas festival, the installation ultimately completed its cycle on March 19, when it was burned during La Cremà, the dramatic closing ceremony that returns each monument to ashes.

YEAR 2026

LOCATION Valencia

COUNTRY Spain

PRESS

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