“The luck of my life was to be born into a Valencian Fallas family.” The young artist Marina Puche was fascinated, since childhood, by these world-famous festivities that have been declared intangible cultural heritage of humanity by Unesco.
In that early passion, the creations of his grandfather, Julián Puche, and his father, Pepe Puche, both fallero artists with extensive experience, had a lot to do with it. Now, the work of Marina, author of the design for the 2023 Valencia municipal fault, can be seen, until May 28, in the Zero room and also in the Gothic cloister of the Center del Carme Cultura Contemporània (CCCC).
With “Love at first ink”, the CCCC confirms for another year the link between contemporary art and the Fallas, that meeting point for all those interested in a wide variety of cultural manifestations. The exhibition gives full prominence to ingenuity and creativity in illustration and design, through a rich selection of ninots, drawings, sketches, murals and cut-outs related to the Fallas imaginary, as well as a series of pieces made by the artist herself. porcelain artist and a large-scale Fallas sculpture produced especially for the exhibition, which can be found in the Gothic cloister of the CCCC.
Those in charge of presenting this exhibition, at the beginning of March, at the CCCC have been the artist and curator of the exhibition, Marina Puche, and the director of the Consorci de Museus and the CCCC, José Luis Pérez Pont. The latter has explained that, since its incorporation, the center has developed “an exhibition line that links the Fallas with contemporary creation and that gives prominence to the renewal of the visual languages ??of a festival that should not only watch over its history, but also continue opening paths that connect it with the culture of the present and the future”. Puche’s work with “different disciplines, materials and themes” finds a common link in the aesthetic and conceptual territory of the Fallas.
The exhibition is the result of the combination of her work as an illustrator at Manitas de Plata –a brand that she has set up with her sister, dedicated to the creation of original design pieces in jewelry, accessories and other objects– and that of an artist linked to to the famous festivities of Sant Josep. “In it, I wanted to talk about that love at first sight that I had for the Fallas and that crush on the details that sweeten the days, through which the everyday becomes observed as if it were a precious object”, she points out. .
“Love at First Ink” begins with a journey that vindicates that characteristic joy that so many people feel when, after a week of work, Friday finally arrives, through a series of small spontaneous drawings that Puche has been publishing that same day of week for five years.
Next, we can see a retrospective of the children’s Fallas made by the artist, as well as her collaborations in the Major Fallas. There is also a prominent space dedicated to the design of the 2023 municipal falla of Valencia.
The project that was the winner, and that Puche presented together with Manolo García and his workshop, is entitled ‘Valencian Cardioversió’. In it, the wide range of emotions that manage to ‘ignite’ our hearts is explored. Thus, in the Gothic cloister of the CCCC, we can discover a large ‘happy’ heart, adorned with oranges and orange blossoms, and surrounded by different types of hearts and beats: a ‘hot heart’, a ‘wild heart’, another ‘sick’ and a ‘frozen heart’, as well as a large bust of a woman with a heart where the brain would be.
Lastly, through a series of small spontaneous drawings, the artist offers a personal journey about the experience that the outbreak of the covid-19 pandemic and confinement entailed, to propose a series of interesting reflections on the way in which we forced citizens to stop our usual rhythm and adapt to the so-called ‘new normal’.
Puche recounts, on her website, that when she was a child her parents took her to their dinners, and to entertain her, “they gave me some colored pencils, and with that I was happy.” After her, she studied Fine Arts and, soon, she began to unleash her polyhedral creativity, in children’s fallas, flower floats, murals, paintings or illustrations. In her work, one can appreciate an unusual ability to observe the everyday and also the search for those extraordinary elements that manage to free us from the weight of routines. With simple language and an agile line, she captures the lightness of the moment, condensing vital moments full of humor and innocence.
His creations manage to harmonize traditional details with magic, endowing the details of daily life with a special aura of beauty. Now, the CCCC offers us the opportunity to discover all the facets of an artist who has a very personal style; combining the softness of a refined and subtle line with the pyrotechnic joy of the mascletá.
