A transgressive change: Graffiti goes from the wall to the fallera fabric

Clothing is one of the most characteristic and important elements of the Fallas. During the last decades, Fallera costumes have been evolving and have been able to adapt to the latest trendsalthough always maintaining the essence and tradition of this festival.

Over the years, there have been several innovative initiatives As the recycled fallera costume by Valencian designer Rosa Montesa or the spur of the fallera major painted on the skin of the Instagrammer Nuria Adraos. This year, a group of twenty urban artists have decided to join this list of groundbreaking proposals through the intervention of a fallera costume, in which the tradition of clothing is combined with the avant-garde of contemporary urban art. Specifically, the major fault of the centenary Valencian commission Vivons-Romeu de Corbera, Cristina Luján, He will wear this suit next Monday, March 18 at one of the events of the big week of the festival.

This initiative, under the motto «#projectfallxs Urban Interweaving»was born by the urban artists Alicia Nuro and Pat One. «The idea of ​​making the intervened suit arose more than two years ago after meeting Cristina, a member of this commission from the Russafa neighborhood. I thought it could become a beautiful image, which was closer to the present reality of the Fallas and the city of Valencia, where The passion for art and design is combined with the most current movements such as muralism and urban art of the graffiti», explains Alicia Nuro. After learning that the young woman was going to represent this commission, they got to work. However, the development process has not been easy. For four months, both artists contacted the different “graffiti artists” who were going to participate in the project. Two months later, they all began painting, sewing and preparing the suit so that it would be ready for this March.

«A unique canvas»

The first step was look for the most suitable suit to carry out this mural. “We look for real second-hand fallera costumes so we can buy one and intervene with paint, sprays and markers as if it were a wall,” he explains. After several months of searching, during the month of October 2023, they contacted Juan Carlos, a neighbor who keeps some suits on his ground floor located in Xirivella.

The fabric chosen is light green tone with floral embroidery in metallic threadswhich has become, in his words, “in a single canvas for all participating artists, “We have been fascinated with the versatility and the difficulties we have encountered when expressing our works in a similar way, but totally different from any other work we had done before.”

During the process, the artists kept the project “secret” so that, in their words, “The fallera will be surprised to see the final result.” “Her response was one of amazement and happiness, since she had never worn a suit of these characteristics,” says the artist, who recognizes that Cristina was the right person, since she is “an unconventional representative, who has known how to wear this suit with attitude and self-confidence.

“Respect tradition”

Although the suit breaks with the usual style of this type of clothing, The artists wanted to “respect tradition” maintaining some elements such as the mantle, which, on this occasion, is represented with symbols by the artist Calligraffiti de Breakvik, and to which a lace has been sewn to provide it with more realism, volume and detail. For his part, a jewelry student from the ESAD of Valencia has participated in the preparation of the jewelry.

The bodice has some nods to the city such as an image made by Maik Illustrator of three falleras heading to the Torres de Serrano. On the skirt there are small “rats penats” by PatOne surrounded by works found in the streets of Valencia, such as the zebras by Alicia Nuro, the graphic icons of The Photographer or La So0mbra and signatures in the purest style of classic graffiti by artists like Zhen, Auli, Kader, SKG, Luiso, León de Judas, Krome, Sara Chóliz, Over and TFK.