Les ciutats invisibles / Lletres dures paraules blanes
Falla Avinguda José Maestre ‘El Cid’ / 2024
management / design / printing
120 prints
'Les ciutats invisibles' by Ricard Balanzà and 'Lletres duras paraules blanes' by Reyes Pe are the two artistic projects of this year's José Maestre 'El Cid' Fallas. Both works have been proposed from the abstraction and experimentation of materials and textures. In addition, the book also includes an essay written by the philosopher Albert Ferrer who, uniting the concepts of the two fallas, tells us about the need to channel spaces for dialogue in the future of life and about the fragmentation of memories and malleability of existence, inviting reflection and reconsideration of our ways of living. And he does it with the metaphorical use of a river. A transparent and fickle river, like the water that Reyes proposes to us with the drops and with the invisibility of the cities that Ricard Balanzà tells us about in reference to the book by Italo Calvino.
Thus, as the two fallas allude to the invisible and the bed of a river, the llibret aims to reflect these conditions from its own designed materiality. And so it shows itself as a physical object; with a cover in which the title is a 3D UVI varnish print that appears white on white depending on the reflection and incidence of light on it. And, at the same time, also externally manifesting the shape of the rivers in the composition of the texts that are seen behind the tracing paper. A composition of the texts that is later manifested throughout the book. On the other hand, this volubility of the water drops is also manifested in the rounded shape of the edges of the book. A whole game of shapes, transparencies, lights and water beds.
The publication internally combines, at the same time, two materials; a tracing paper – where the essay and the information related to the commission are printed in black and white – and a white coated paper – printed in color and containing the information related to both fallas. Given that the importance of both is parallel, this publication proposes a central triptych where the images of each are displayed: that of Ricard Balanzà, on the one hand, and that of Reyes Pe, on the other. However, the closed triptych puts them in relation, allowing an individual or comparative reading (like the falla itself on the street) according to the user's usage.
In short, this book stands out for its conceptual power in relation to the two proposed fallas and its experimental and independent nature. Conditions that are reflected in all the graphic resources and materials that have been taken into account to design and print the publication.
Collaborators
Albert Ferrer, Ricard Balanzà, Reyes Pe
Cover
Ricardo Ruíz
Web reading
https://bit.ly/4bR47Y4
