The pedagogue of the Fallas civilization, Toni Fornés Quijano, brought to the Plan the technique of elaboration of the sculptures so that the artists of Meta could elaborate those of the myths and legends of the Plan.
For art and civilization, there are no borders or paths that divide a country, only the will and desire to share knowledge that brings the world together. This is the message that the professor of civilization Fallas Toni Fornés Quijano wants to leave on the plane with his learning and his presence in the 51st performance of the International Tournament of Joropo.
In the last two months he has taught 25 llanero artists the art he learned in his native Valencia (Spain), which they will exhibit on Sunday June 30 with six troupes and the same number of gigantic sculptures of myth and poster, which becomes the Plan that will accompany the five thousand dancers who will take part in the Joropódromo in the streets of Villavicencio.
In Valencia, the third most noble city in Spain in terms of population, the Fallas festival has been celebrated from March 15 to 19 for more than 150 years. Its inhabitants carve and display around the city some 800 giant static sculptures that reach 30 meters in merit.
They are sculptures critical of the social issues that have arisen over the past twelve months and on the day of the celebration, March 19, they will be burned to purify the fire ritual and eliminate the evil seen in society, explains the professor Fornés, who grew up with this popular tradition every year.
Capricious, he says, he felt a special sympathy for drawing and artistic manifestations which, at the age of 18, led him to enter the approval of fine arts of San Carlos, Polytechnic University of Valencia and at the same time began with the improvement of the self-taught workshop and the foundation of his own company.
The Fallas sculptures were formed with polystyrene more than 30 years ago and the Pedagogue Fornés has been working with this raw material and this art for 26 years. With this material and the Fallas technique, he says, any theme park, atmosphere or decoration is achieved.
“It’s the tool that I bring here so that Colombian sculptors learn to use it. Some are born artists and simply lacked the training to have a broader professional process with this technique,” he says.
Her acquaintances took her to Florencia (Caquetá), Neiva (Huila), Barranquilla (Atlántico) and Bucaramanga (Santander) in Colombia. But he also recognizes that it is an art that has spread across the world.
At an electronic music event in Belgium, he brought nine artists from Colombia whom he had trained and who were then able to work in Spain with help to perfect their technique.
In Bucaramanga he worked for two years training artists and there he was contacted by the director of the Meta Civilization Institute, Luis Horacio Vasco, who discovered the Fallas civilization and the Fallas experience during of a meeting of cultural authorities in Bogotá. , in this case it delivered great results for the Santander stream.
Later he contacted the pedagogue Tonni Fornés and invited him to Villavicencio to share his experience, which was analyzed by the departmental government and he had the audacity to repeat it to Meta.
The “Seedbed of Falleras del Meta” software was born there from a call to collaborate with 25 artists to assimilate this art and 15 of them were chosen to make the sculptures that accompany the choreography in the Joropódromo, where more than five will dance. a thousand people
“This year’s colorful event will be more complete without losing the essence of our folklore”, inspired by the myths and legends of the plane, which will represent La Llorona, Tuy, Florentino and the devil, El Silbón, Juan Cuchillo and Juan el Ríos, supports the director of the Meta Civilization Institute.
The six sculptures “are accompanied by their respective groups, made up of 180 actors from the theatrical section of the area, combining actors from various cultural and artistic backgrounds, including joropo dancers, plains groups, performers, artists visual artists, directors of academies and theater groups, says Vasco.
As they will accompany the dancers and will not be static, they will be smaller than those of Valencia. They will not exceed five meters, also because it is necessary to take into account the existence of electricity and telephone networks which extend in the area of the avenue of the Sikuani park where the Joropódromo will pass, explains the pedagogue Fornés.
And unlike in Valencia (Spain), where the sculptures are burned on the day of the popular falleras festival, in Villavicencio the images are projected in such a way as to make them permanent so that the clan can continue to see them.
The pedagogue Fornés specifies that what he brings to the Plan is not the traditional Castilian, “it is a technique that is used in the world and that I teach so that the sculptors benefit from it, so that they do it in the future and grow personally. “, because for art and civilization there are no borders or paths that separate a country.
economic dynamics
Governor Marcela Amaya remains firm in this audacity despite the situation of the main road that connects the Plano to Bogotá, which has caused stagnation and losses to the regional heritage, which has been worsening for more than a month and now with the closure indefinite of the road corridor so as not to postpone the 51st interpretation of the international tournament of Joropo “Miguel Hechizo Martín”.
With this event he expressed: “We intend to stimulate mainly the tourism sector, one of the most affected, we hope that the inhabitants of the departments of Casanare, Arauca, Vichada and Guaviare, that tourists from the rest of the country join us. live through alternative channels and in the zephyr, and that President Iván Duque accompanied us on Sunday, the day of the Joropódromo.
The tournament, which opens next Thursday, June 27 with the Procession and will last until July 1, includes the traditional competitions in the different forms of music and song, Joropódromo, Joropo Académica, Dominion and Float Parade.
The events, which take place mainly in the Malocas de Villavicencio park, include other activities such as a bike ride, butchering and caging of the studs, work on the smooth, Coleo y Navío (food festival) .
airs of nelson ardila
DIE ZEIT Correspondent
Villavicencio
Twitter: @nelard1