The exhibition, organised by the Cátedra Demetrio Ribes, in collaboration with the University of Valencia’s Office for Culture and Equality, is part of the University’s extensive schedule of exhibitions to mark Valencia’s 80th anniversary as the capital of the Second Spanish Republic.

Under the title of València / 1937 La Exposición Nacional de Obras Públicas, the event aims to analyse the role of public works policy in the Republican reformist agenda and the debate it triggered, with a focus on the National Water Works Plan, closely linked to the agricultural reform of the first two years and relaunched by the Frente Popular.

This exhibition commemorates the exhibition inaugurated on 11 June 1937 at Valencia’s Silk Exchange, thanks to the tenacity of Julio Just, the ex-Minister of Public Works. The exhibition itself is split into four sections. The first part highlights the unifying nature of the Republican reformist discourse. There follows analysis of the political aspects of propaganda from inside and outside the Republican government, which needed to centralise its military and economic war efforts. Then, the 1937 exhibits are examined, with emphasis on water works and analysis of the contents of the exhibition through photographs and press articles. The final section of the exhibition looks at how the 1937 event integrated the message the government wanted to promote: a ‘drive to create the Republic’ in all areas of life.