Valencia was the last major stronghold of Republican Spain to fall to the fascist forces of General Franco in 1939.   Perhaps it is that rebellious spirit of the city that helps explain the popularity and durability of the Falles Festival that runs from March 15^th to 19th every year in March just as Spring is coming into bloom with its profusion of flowers and greenery.

 

This festival truly has to be one of the most unique and strangest in the world. For five hectic days, the city becomes the site of numerous parades, processions, fireworks, street parties, huge bonfires and, of course, the “Falles.” The whole city becomes infected with the festival spirit, and I found it quite heartening one day to see a bunch of young school girls in uniforms spontaneously breaking out in song as they marched down a narrow street in the old quarter.

 

 

In our travels through the city in the days leading up to the Falles festival this Spring, we got to watch as huge cartoon-like fantastic figures and caricatures, the “Falles”, were mounted in plazas and streets across the city. The colourful figures are constructed from wood, cork, cardboard, wax, Styrofoam and other materials by an organized group of people from each neighborhood, including artists, artisans, sculptors and others, who raise money and build the Falles. 

 

These creations can be as much as 5 stories high, and are often satirical and anti-establishment in nature, lampooning politicians (e.g., George W. Bush has been a notable target in previous years), corruption, the economic crisis, cultural personalities, as well as people and incidents from history – practically anything or anyone is game for the rebellious and critical eye of the Valencians.

 

The tradition of making Falles is thought to have originated with Valencian carpenters hundreds of years ago, who began constructing effigies of local people and politicians from left over wood and building materials and burning them all on St. Joseph’s day. The authorities at various times tried to suppress the tradition, but were unsuccessful as the festival has strong support amongst the people. 

 

Over the centuries, the tradition became much more sophisticated and organized to the point that the Falles today are a major city-wide project (that attracts people from all over Spain and internationally) and are of high artistic quality – fantastic, strange, bizarre – and underneath it all, often bitingly satirical. Adults are not the only ones who get to participate. Children from the neighborhoods also create their own Falle, but on a much smaller scale. 

 

The neighborhoods compete with one another to see who can create the best Falle. And the artistic creations that result are quite amazing. Ironically, despite the months of work that go into their creation, all but one of the Falles (the winner) are burned in giant bonfires and explosions of fireworks on the last night of the festival. Like the creative spirit of the people, these bonfires light up the sky all over the city.

 

In one sense, the Falles are a kind of collective expression of art, as it is the people of each neighborhood who form the groups that spend hundreds of hours constructing the figures. There is something vital and compelling about all of this, even though, for some, the Falles festival is just a big party and for others it is just a tourist attraction.

 

Thinking about this Festival, I can’t help but feel that in modern life we have lost our way in many respects regarding the production of culture and art. Art and culture, like sports, have too much become spectator activities. This tendency, of course, has been fueled by the radio, television and movie industry which has created an artificial barrier between “super star” and “professional” on the one hand, and ordinary people on the other. 

 

Art, culture and sports are a kind of “tonic” for the human body and spirit, and are as old as the human race itself. But today, we are relegated to the position of watching the “superstars” of television, sports and music drink the tonic while we sit passively by in front of a flickering screen or hooked up with a headphone to an Ipod.

 

Perhaps this is due to the rampant commercialization of these activities, which seems to breed the “superstar” formula.   But this formula, while glorifying a few, tends to depress and dampen the creative spirit in the people as a whole. It also tends to diminish the critical and anti-establishment “edge” that inevitably bubbles up in cultural events like the Falles festival which have a touch of mass character.

 

Maybe we need more of such mass participatory cultural activities. That being said, we do have various things in that category in Canada, especially for young people in school. There are also charities, social events and volunteer sports of various kinds. 

 

However, so much of culture today is “canned” by the big media and cultural monopolies and it bears their imprint. An important issue for workers especially, but also youth, professionals and other sections of the people is to find the ways and means to put their own stamp on both the form and content of popular culture.

 

Ironically, one of the most universally popular mass political / cultural celebration in the world today is May Day, international working class day. This celebration actually originated in North America in 1886 in the aftermath of the Chicago Haymarket Massacre. It is hugely popular in Europe and other parts of the world, where it is celebrated every year by workers and their allies; yet it is only sporadically celebrated in North America.      

 

Today, various possibilities for more mass participation in culture are emerging as a result of new media technology. For example, there are certainly many things to be critical about in television shows like American Idol (especially the nasty commentary, the sensationalism and the commercialism), but is there not a small kernel of something positive there, in that ordinary people, who aren’t part of the elite and don’t have all the connections, show their enthusiasm to participate in art and culture and show what they can do? And can’t the same thing even be said about such a phenomenon as karaoke? Don’t both of these activities reveal a deep desire by ordinary people to be more than mere spectators to and consumers of culture?

 

One of the great advancements in technology today has been the development of “interactivity” as can be seen in the digital world of the Internet. This opens up new vistas for mass participation in culture, as do the powerful new software programs. As a result of this technology, film, graphic, sound and music creation, which used to require costly production facilities, is now within the reach of many.   

 

Elitists in art and culture diminish the role of both the collective and the people, and highlight that of the “exceptional” individual and superstar. But they forget that there is much evidence to suggest that art and culture, as well as sports, began, in the pre-history of humanity, as collective, participatory activities embedded in every day life. 

 

Indeed, perhaps it is from that deep well and sparkling water that contemporary art and culture can renew itself.