Burn Terrassa. That’s the premise behind a spectacular installation that will turn Vallparadís into a blazing inferno. We’ll have to wait for the sun to set and the park to fall into darkness for another light to appear: the searing light of flames, threatening to consume everything.

With this open-air piece, the company Ça Marche is offering us the chance to experience a fire up close, through a simulation that combines lighting effects, sound, smoke and projections to recreate the feeling of being up against one of nature’s most destructive forces.

They say a fire is a wake-up call. But standing face to face with it, it’s almost though as though we’re stood before an elaborate set, scorched by the majesty of a catastrophe so immense it can’t possibly be real. We’ve all heard stories of ordinary, everyday folk who, when faced with flames, perform extraordinary acts of heroism. But there are also tales of people who gaze enchanted and entranced by the spectacle of fire. As if fire were just that. A spectacle.

In fact, we’ve all heard stories about fire. And it’s no surprise that, throughout our long evolution, humans have told most of our stories around it. There’s an invisible thread connecting the first hominids gathered around a campfire with burning chalets in the Los Angeles suburbs. Ancient gods with modern-day wildfires. A contradictory bond linking devastation, fear and beauty.

Ça Marche had already ventured into the world of simulations and special effects with RUIDO, a show that revealed the artifice of movie sound effects, which we were able to see two years ago at TNT. With this new piece, they are back with a feast for the eyes, a hypnotic, sensory spectacle that will project our deepest fears across Terrassa’s park. What better than fiction to savour the greatest terror?

Incendis is one of this year’s open-air performances, designed to transform the public space. And if you’d also like to witness the explosion before the fire, don’t miss Down, by Mélissa Guex, in Plaça Vella.