Technology and tradition unite to create new 'Nans Nous' figures for children's Patum celebration  

Parades, music, and fire fill the streets and squares of Berga, in northern Catalonia, as giants, demons, and dragons take over the city during La Patum.

The new 'Nans Nous' (New Dwarfs) for this year's children's Patum were created with distinctive features resembling, for the first time, the adult figures. 

The Patum celebration, recognized by UNESCO as part of the world's intangible cultural heritage in 2005, dates back to the 14th and 15th centuries and marks the Christian feast of Corpus Christi. 

The Nans Nous are four figures that represent two couples, one young and the other old, that dance to a playful melody during the children's Patum festival.  

The parades and celebrations for the kids take place on Friday of festival week, an adapted version of Berga's main Patum celebrations, which take place from Wednesday to Sunday. 

The creation of the figures' heads for the children combined tradition and technological innovations.  

The figures were made using 3D printed molds from scans of the original heads of the adult Nans Nous, adapting them for scale. The heads were handcrafted with papier-mâché, traditional adhesives, and painted with oil paints. 

This technique made it possible to transfer all the "defects" accumulated in the centuries-old adult dwarfs to the sculptures of the child dwarfs, artist Pau Reig said.  

At the same time, it facilitated the artist's work as the shape remained the same. "What I have to do is accompany the sculpture so that it resembles [the original] as much as possible," he said.  

During the creation process, one of the obstacles was the head area and the hats worn by the figures. "We had scanned the dwarves with the hats on, and this meant that Marko [the engineer] had to invent a part of the head so that they could adapt well," Reig said.  

The new heads, crafted in Pau Reig's workshop in Solsona with the help of children who tried them on, are "much more comfortable" to wear, as they are much lighter and are held on the children's chest, Reig explained.     

This year's children's Patum will be celebrated on June 20.  

Filling the Sink

Listen to learn more about the Patum celebrations: 'Pa-tum Pa-tum Pa-tum – inside Berga's wild medieval rave'