In Valencia, where fire becomes language and ritual every year through the Fallas de Valencia, the Spanish duo PichiAvo has unveiled one of the most radical and symbolic installations of this year’s edition of the festival. Titled Per ofrenar – “To Offer” – the work is destined to disappear within a matter of days, consumed by flames during La Cremà on March 19.
Created for the Borrull-Socors commission and included in the Experimental Fallas category, the project stands out for its more conceptual approach within a centuries-old tradition. Installed at 31 Calle Borrull, in the heart of the city, the work takes the shape of an Ionic temple that explicitly references the Temple of Athena Nike, turning the urban space into a stage suspended between archaeology and contemporaneity.
Inside the temple, an altar built from surplus paper left over from the printing of the book Our Odyssey holds a perfectly balanced scale. At either end, two sculptural wax candles represent worlds that seem opposed yet are deeply connected: on one side, Classical Art; on the other, Graffiti. It is in this symbolic gesture that PichiAvo’s entire practice is distilled, as they have long been committed to bringing the aesthetics of tradition into dialogue with urban language.
Conceived over the course of a year, the project also marks a conscious return to the original materials and techniques of the fallas. Wood and paper replace the industrial solutions often adopted in contemporary productions, giving the work a more authentic dimension, one that is more aligned with the spirit of the festival. The construction was entrusted to fallas artisan Paco Ribes, a key figure in keeping Valencia’s craft tradition alive.
Like every Falla, however, Per ofrenar is meant to be destroyed. And that is precisely its most powerful nature: a monument that finds its fulfillment in the moment it disappears. When flames pass through it during La Cremà, the temple, the scale, and all their symbolism will be erased, making room for a reflection that goes beyond the object itself.
In this final gesture, PichiAvo reaffirm a central tension in their work: that between permanence and transience, between art history and urban culture, between construction and destruction. Per ofrenar is not just an installation, but an ephemeral offering that, in burning, gives meaning to both the past and the present.
