Exhibition "Foc - Festivities of fire in the Comunitat Valenciana"
From 14 March to 28 April at the CCCC (Valencia)
Curated by: Miguel Arraiz García and José Francisco Carsí Navarro
Organised by: Consorci de Museus de la Comunitat Valenciana
Collaborated by: Apunt Media and Fundació del Disseny de la Comunitat Valenciana

Fire for Valencians is part of our culture and essence. And it is not only in Valencia, in many other territories inside and outside the Valencian Community. Of the world. Years ago, together with José Francisco Carsi Navarro, we began to investigate the Fire Festivals that exist in the world and more specifically in our Community. The result of that work was “FOC”, a book that includes nearly 300 festivities that base their reason for being on fire.

That book has become the exhibition “Foc – Fire Festivities in the Valencian Community” which will be presented on March 14 at the CCCC. Organized by the Consorci de Museus de la Comunitat Valenciana, this photographic exhibition and different objects collect seven of the main festivals that we find in our territory and whose common thread is fire. La Foguera de Canals, Santantonà de Forcall, Matxà de Vilanova d'Alcolea, Cordà de Paterna, Fatxos d'Onil, Fogueres de Alicante, and Falles de Valencia are a small sample of the countless number of festivities around the fire that structure our territory. and our calendar.

Because fire is the element of nature that has most fascinated human beings throughout history, both on a mystical and religious level. Central axis of many celebrations in the world, the meaning of each fire has been and continues to be a question of great interest for philosophers, ethnologists and the curious. The origins of many of these festivities are distributed throughout the calendar, generally based on the movement of the sun, although later, many of them have been linked to religious manifestations, until reaching the present day. Without forgetting the purifying aspect of fire, which is also the origin of many of these traditions.

A journey through different celebrations that draw a bridge between Valencians but also with people from all over the world, who find in this element the connection to establish social, cultural relationships and different trades such as art, design, fashion, goldsmithing. , music, pyrotechnics or crafts.