• Image of the exhibition The Corpus Christi festival in València: an artistic vision
- The exhibition The Corpus Christi festival in València: an artistic vision will remain open to the public until October 19
- It brings together a hundred works inspired by the festa grossa, declared Intangible Cultural Heritage (BIC) for its cultural and heritage value
- The Councilor for Culture, José Luis Moreno, invites you to “discover the artistic vision of this festival through the eyes of artists such as Sorolla, Benlliure, or Pinazo”
The Benlliure House Museum is hosting, since yesterday, The Corpus Christi festival in València: an artistic vision. This exhibition, which will remain open to the public until October 19, brings together a hundred works inspired by the festa grossa of the city, including pieces by Pinazo, Sorolla, or José Benlliure.
The Councilor for Cultural Action, Heritage, and Cultural Resources, José Luis Moreno, participated this afternoon in the inauguration of this exhibition “with which the City Council joins the commemorative events of Corpus Christi and reinforces its commitment to the dissemination of the artistic legacy of José Benlliure, the museum’s titular painter, fascinated, like so many others, by the plasticity and magnetism of the city’s festa grossa, a festival declared Intangible Cultural Heritage (BIC) for its cultural and heritage value”.
The exhibition, curated by the doctor in Art History from the University of València, Enric Olivares Torres, gathers paintings, drawings, ceramics, publications, and photographs and is structured into three sections.
The first, titled The artistic vision of the great masters, brings together works inspired by the Corpus of València and other popular religious celebrations, signed by Valencian artists from the 19th and 20th centuries such as Ignacio Pinazo, Joaquín Sorolla, José Benlliure, Julio Peris Brell, or Salvador Tuset, among others.
The second section, The Processional Rolls: Popular Testimonies of the Festival, presents, “for the first time, jointly and exceptionally”, the Corpus Roll of València and the Santa Bárbara Roll of Moncada, considered “two of the most complete illustrated documents of these processions”.
The section The Corpus between humor and naturalistic description, which offers a selection of illustrated publications, fallas sketches, decorative ceramics, and photographs reflecting the social and cultural impact of the festival on Valencian life, closes the exhibition.
José Luis Moreno has invited the public to visit this exhibition “because it is an opportunity to rediscover this festival, which the city of València celebrates this week”.
“The Corpus, over the centuries, has shaped a symbolic universe that transcends its religious dimension and has been a powerful engine of artistic creation,” the councilor stated, recalling that “elements such as the Rocas, the festive bestiary, the giants and cabezudos, the ritual dances, the biblical characters, and the representations of mysteries have endured as part of a collective, vibrant, and dynamic heritage, leaving a deep mark in fields such as ephemeral architecture, music, dance, literature, and visual arts”.