Story By: Jonathan Macias, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Newsflash

These images show how a giant figure erected in a Spanish city to celebrate a traditional festival had a face mask put on after the event was cancelled because of the coronavirus.

The figure of the woman meditating had been erected in the city centre of Valencia in the autonomous community with the same name in eastern Spain in preparation for the celebration of Las Fallas.

During the festival, large cardboard figures called ‘fallas’ are erected before being burnt down in the city.

However, after the festival was cancelled in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, local artists Manolo Martin and Jose Ramon Espuig, as well as designer Escif, who were responsible for making the figure, have placed a face mask on the woman.

The trio asked the municipality to keep the monument in the city centre as a symbol of patience, calm and hope.

Reports state they also placed the mask on the woman as a way of protesting for the economic loss that the virus has caused for the artists who work on the figures for the celebration.

Manolo Martin told local media: “I understand that local authorities want to avoid agglomerations. I am assembling this ‘falla’ and if I have to finish it there should be no agglomerations.

“We want the Fallas to be assembled in a controlled way avoiding gatherings. It would not be the kind of Fallas that we would like but it would help to reduce the damage.”

Designer Escif also added that the sculpture should be maintained as it brings “peace, calm and hope,” adding: “These are precisely the values that the big woman meditating conveys. This will also pass.”

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