The Miguel Hernández University (UMH) of Elche hosts from today, September 30th, until October 8th, the traveling exhibition 'Francesc Almela i Vives, humanist of the Silver Age'. The exhibition can be visited at the ECO Open Cultural Space in the Altabix building on the university campus. The initiative is organized by the Vice-Rectorate for Culture, Equality, and Diversity of the UMH, in collaboration with AVIVA Elche and the Valencian Academy of Language, within the framework of the Elx-UMH Cultural Dialogues program.
This traveling exhibition, which will tour throughout the Valencian Community, reviews the life and literary career of Francesc Almela i Vives, recognized as the 2026 Writer of the Year. Almela i Vives is a prominent figure of the so-called 'generation of 1930'. His poetic work, including titles such as L’espill a trossos (1928) and Joujou (1933), is characterized by a clear style and an irony that distinguishes him from the sentimentalism of many of his contemporaries. In theater, he attempted to renew the Valencian scene with plays like L’Antigor (1931), premiered at the Alkázar theater. He also translated into Valencian Lenin: scenes from the Russian revolution, a theatrical adaptation of a biographical novel by Ossendowski originally written in Spanish by Josep Bolea, an action that caused him problems after the war.
In his maturity, Francesc Almela i Vives received significant institutional recognition, such as his appointment as official chronicler of the city of Valencia in 1963 and the title of adopted son of the city in 1966. Furthermore, this period was characterized by an evolution in his civic and linguistic thought, showing a critical opposition to Joan Fuster's theses after the publication of El País Valenciano in 1962.
