La Holy Week at Sea in Valencia The festival now boasts its new poster, a work that seeks to encapsulate in a single image the symbolic weight, emotion, and maritime essence of this celebration so closely linked to the neighborhoods of the Valencian coast. The unveiling has become one of the first milestones on the festive calendar, marking the start of the countdown to one of the city's most renowned religious and popular events.
The presentation ceremony was held at the Grao MarketA setting closely linked to the daily life of the maritime neighborhoods, reinforcing the deep connection between the festival and its surroundings. Within this context, authorities, brotherhoods, designers, and local residents experienced the festival for the first time. official image that will represent the Maritime Holy Week, conceived as a letter of introduction to the citizens and people who visit Valencia during these dates.
The Councillor for Festivals and Traditions, Monica GilShe was in charge of introducing the work, emphasizing that it is a poster that “speaks for itself, without needing much explanation.” As she explained, the composition proposes An image that invites you to stop, contemplate, and let yourself be carried away by emotion., by capturing a gesture of pain that, far from remaining in the dramatic, also opens up to surrender and hope.
In her words, the councilwoman emphasized that the new design does not intend to impose a rigid interpretation, but rather is presented as an open dialogue with each person who observes itIn this way, the poster becomes a vehicle for connecting tradition with current sensibilities, respecting the religious roots of the celebration but allowing each viewer to find their own interpretation within the depicted scene.
This willingness to engage in dialogue is part of a broader vision of how the city's festive heritage should be managed. According to Mónica Gil, “Protecting a festival is not about transforming it, but about preserving it.”This involves preserving its content, its memory, and its way of expressing itself, while updating the visual languages to keep it alive and close to new generations.
A serene reinterpretation of the Pietà motif
The new poster takes as its starting point the motif of the PietyThe depiction of the Virgin Mary holding the body of Jesus after the crucifixion is one of the most recognizable scenes in Christian iconography. However, the work departs from a strictly dramatic vision to offer a more serene, restrained reading, full of symbolism, in which the expressions and posture of the figures lean more towards transcendence than towards explicit suffering.
From the perspective of its authorship, the image is conceived as An intimate reflection on maternal love, sacrifice, and hope which precedes the resurrection. Instead of only highlighting the pain of loss, the scene is used as a bridge to the idea of rebirth, closely linked to the ultimate meaning of Holy Week and especially to the moment of transition that Holy Saturday represents.
The use of color plays a fundamental role in this symbolic interpretation. The piece employs vibrant yet elegant colorsCombined with a sober, clean, and respectful composition that avoids stridency to reinforce the contemplative tone, this choice allows the work to clearly evoke the atmosphere of the Holy Saturday, that instant between the darkness of death and the opening to the light of rebirth.
This visual approach helps the poster to be understood both by those who experience the festival with intense devotion and by those who are approaching it for the first time. Holy Week Marinera From a more cultural or heritage perspective, the work thus occupies a point of equilibrium where religious depth, artistic sensitivity, and a desire to educate coexist.
The scene, crafted with a strong symbolic charge but without overloading the elements, becomes an invitation to look beyond the first impressionEvery detail - from the gesture of the hands to the treatment of light and color - is designed to support a visual narrative consistent with the message of reflection, comfort and hope that characterizes this celebration in the seaside neighborhoods.
Maritime tradition and contemporary language
One of the most striking aspects of the poster is its ability to to connect the tradition of Holy Week by the Sea with a modern graphic languageThe work incorporates iconographic elements recognizable to the brotherhoods and the residents, but presents them with a contemporary aesthetic that facilitates their understanding and visual impact in an environment saturated with images, both on the street and in digital media.
The visual proposal pays homage to the Mediterranean identity of the festival, alluding to the light, colors, and atmosphere characteristic of Valencia's maritime neighborhoods. Alongside this, a clear reference is incorporated to altar at sea, one of the most representative symbols of the Holy Week by the Sea, which summarizes like few others the historical relationship between religious devotion and the world of seafaring.
In the words of councilwoman Mónica Gil, the studio responsible for the design “has managed to convey an essential motif of religious tradition to a modern and recognizable visual code”, without turning it into a mere aesthetic exercise detached from its meaning. The poster does not dictate a single interpretation, but rather proposes a framework in which each person can project their own experiences related to the festival.
This way of working is linked to the idea that the Holy Week at Sea is a living traditionThis tradition, passed down from generation to generation, simultaneously engages with its time. The brotherhoods, processions, and popular devotion remain pillars, while the imagery is updated to continue its effectiveness as a communication tool both within and beyond the city.
The poster thus comes to play a key role as letter of introduction of the celebration to the worldIt will not only be visible in streets, parishes and institutional spaces, but also in digital media, official programs and promotional materials, helping to reinforce the uniqueness of this Holy Week compared to other celebrations of the same period in Spain and Europe.
The Grao Market, a setting with maritime history
The choice of Grao Market The choice of this location to unveil the new poster is no coincidence. It's a place deeply rooted in the life of Valencia's maritime neighborhoods, where daily activity, the history of the port, and the area's popular identity converge. Presenting the official image of the festival there implies to reaffirm the link between the Maritime Holy Week and its social and urban context.
During the event, the market became a meeting point for brotherhoods, municipal representatives, designers and neighborswho were able to see the selected work for the first time. These types of presentations reinforce the community dimension of the festival, highlighting that Holy Week by the Sea is not only a religious event, but also a cultural landmark and a symbol of community life on the city's waterfront.
The institutional presence, led by the Councillor for Festivals and Traditions, also served to highlight the work of the graphic design professionals involved in creating the official image. In her speech, the councillor emphasized the importance of to carefully manage the visual presentation of traditional festivalssince these images are often the first point of entry for those who approach them for the first time.
The atmosphere of the event, somewhere between an official presentation and a neighborhood gathering, reflected the way Holy Week in the maritime district is celebrated in these neighborhoods: as a shared celebration, in which devotion, emotion and the feeling of belonging to a community closely linked to the sea coexist.
Placing the poster in this context allows us to better understand its function: it is not just an advertising medium, but a an emblem that represents an entire neighborhood and its way of experiencing Holy Week, both on the spiritual, social and cultural level.
Juárez Casanova, a studio with a long history
The poster was designed by the studio Juárez Casanova, formed by Javier Juárez and Sílvia Casanova, a team with a professional career of more than 25 years in the field of graphic design. His involvement with this type of project is characterized by a special attention to composition and a commitment to images capable of generating reflection beyond the initial impact.
The studio began its activity in 1996 and formally established its own firm in 2004. Throughout these decades, its work has been distinguished by a balanced color scheme, great visual clarity, and a remarkable capacity for synthesis, features that are also seen in the new image of the Holy Week by the Sea in Valencia.
A selection process was opened for the poster. public call for design professionals, to which a total of 19 designers and studios submitted entries, in a procedure similar to that of the selection of the graphic image of the FallasAfter the evaluation process, Juárez Casanova's proposal was selected to become the official image of the next edition of the celebration, which highlights both the artistic quality of the work and its ability to faithfully represent the spirit of the festival.
As Councillor Mónica Gil has pointed out, the study has achieved to translate an essential passage of religious tradition into a contemporary graphic languagewithout losing respect for its meaning or for the sensibilities of those who experience Holy Week intensely. This balance between respect and contemporary style has been one of the determining factors in the choice.
With this commission, the Maritime Holy Week of Valencia It reinforces its commitment to having a high-level artistic advertising image.The poster is capable of distinguishing the celebration within the city's festive landscape and projecting it powerfully both nationally and internationally. It not only serves an informative function but also becomes part of the festival's visual identity, contributing to the collective memory of the coastal neighborhoods.
The publication and distribution of this new work consolidate the trend of the Maritime Holy Week to rely on carefully crafted and conceptually developed designsthat speak of tradition but also of the present, and that place the celebration among the most unique and recognizable in Valencia, both for its processions by the sea and for the quality of its official image.
The final result is a graphic piece that, through a serene reading of the Pietà, measured chromatism, and a marked vocation for dialogue with the viewer, has already become the public face of the Maritime Holy Week of Valenciasynthesizing in a single poster the weight of tradition, the strength of maritime devotion and the will to keep moving forward without losing sight of the roots.
