This week Valencian Fallas artist Vicente Navarro had his work go viral around the globe in a manner he might not previously have thought possible, but for all the wrong reasons. The ‘Ninot’ figure, deliberately created as an act of satire, of Real Madrid star Vinicius Junior did not go down well with many.
His piece was named ‘the golden crap’, and mocked the Brazilian footballer for missing out on the Ballon d’Or last year. However given the strained relations between Valencia CF and Vinicius, and the racial abuse he has suffered in the past, many saw it as a further racial attack on his figure.
Navarro has since put out a statement on social media in the aftermath.
“These last 24 hours have been the most surreal of my professional life. After wishing me death and receiving all kinds of insults on social networks, from people who don’t even know me, following the creation of a Ninot of the footballer Vinicius , for the Ninot exhibition in Valencia, I will settle the issue now. I am not going to spend another second explaining, to those who are not interested, what the Fallas are, the work of the Faller@s Artists, what is, or is not humour, something as subjective as how people exist in the world.”
“No-one or anyone is going to come to us now and tell us where the red lines of satire and creativity are, as if censorship were returning, and much less from people who do not know and have not even been interested in knowing what a Falla is, before of publishing sensationalist and centralist headlines that incite hatred. To the Madrid media, let them see that it is not very good to be so Spanish and not know one of their most important festivals. For my part, I’m sorry, but I’m not one for grandparents and cats, maybe one day, but for now I prefer Rock&Roll more…. And to the Valencians, faller@s and non-faller@s, let’s defend our culture and our roots, because they are not going to do it from elsewhere. Viva Valencia, Viva Les Falles and Viva our land.”
Meanwhile the President of Las Fallas, Vicente Rodriguez, invited Vinicius to come to Las Fallas in order to see the figure himself.
“For a Valencian, having a Ninot is a symbol of pride. We invite Vinicius to come to La Falla to see the figure. These things are never done with bad intentions. Las Fallas are satire and criticism,” he noted to Marca.
