La Fiesta Mayor is an annual festival in which Cabezitos (giant papar mache heads), Giants, devils and eagles are paraded the streets, and scores of participants create human towers, in what has become an event of national cultural importance. The event in its current form can be traced back to at least 1776, but there are records showing the inclusión of giants in parades in Barcelona since early corpus criisti parades of 1424.
Recently I have been trying to consider myself as the maker of these ambiguos narrative painted scenes more, and the responsibility to consider my identity whilst producing artworks. I wanted to situate myself more firmly in the work in this series, both conceptually and physically/geographically, whilst not over sharing or making the work too personal.
A dichotomy I am interested in within artistic production is the idea of the presence of the maker in work, yet with a conscious removal of anything too personal from it. I think a good painting has some of the same qualities as a good song; it can resonate with whoever is looking at it or listening to it because they are deriving what they want from it and apply it to themselves in a personal way, regardless of what it means on meant to the person who made it.
The result of this culmination of ideas has been this series: ‘Fiesta Major’. La Fiesta Major is the most important anual street party for many of the villages across Cataluña, which I have called home for the last 11 years. Each year giants and big heads (gigantes y cabezudos) are proudly paraded through each village alongside a number of seemingly mystical creatures, accompanied by music, traditional dances and castillers (human towers). Each village has its very own pair of giants which represent it across the county, yet the maker of each of the giants is not celebrated overtly as any other artist, despite having creating a giant size work of art.
This series of paintings is a reflexion of and interpretation of and an appreciation for the Fiesta Mayor, the craftsmanship and art that goes into making it possible, it’s mythical attraction and it’s celebration of tradition and history.
-Joshua Perkin
