WORK IN PROGRESS.

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The "correfoc" is a cultural event that takes its roots in Spain in Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and in the Valencian Community, but which also exists in France, in Northern Catalonia. It is a pyrotechnic show where a group of people often disguised as devils, walks the streets dancing and jumping brandishing Bengal lights, firecrackers and other explosive devices. The origins of this practice date back to the “Ball de Diables” (Ball of the Devils), documented from the 12th century in Catalonia, but it was not until the end of Francoism that this event was called “correfoc” for the first time in 1977, by the “Diables del Clot” a movement for traditional Catalan culture in Barcelona.

"Greg Calvache's photographs take us closer to the fire, following a procession where devils and the public mingle, through sulfur-smelling smoke, explosions, and cries, in dark alleys. They show the interest and the will to preserve these traditions, beyond the risks of accidents that they can generate, in their role of transmission of intergenerational identity values.

The artist doesn't put the documentary axis forward here. He prefers instead to let the atmosphere of these "correfocs" guide his gaze, diving into the mystery of these ancient pagan festivities. Exclusively silver black & white photographs, which reveal ghosts, mischievous devils, and a bestiary of forgotten creatures that only come back to make us thrill and dance, free from all judgment, under a rain of fire...”

Céline Fischer