The Tossal Hall of the Gandia International Centre hosts the exhibition “El país que va fascinar Jean Dieuzaide” (Valencian for The country that enchanted Jean Dieuzaide), from the Valencian Museum of Ethnology. An exhibition organised jointly with the Department of Culture of the Gandia City Council.

Dieuzaide was already a well-known photographer when in 1951 he received his first assignment abroad, which took him to the Valencian Country. Here he observed the survival of a way of life, customs, traditions and a way of conceiving the world that had little to do with the current situation in Western Europe.

This is how he became interested in registering what “no longer existed” in his country. What was now before his eyes was a past that only here was present, a rural society that seemed to take him back to the old pre-industrial world. Through the images we will travel through the ways of life of Valencian society between 1951 and 1971 to discover what it was like, what they did and how they lived. In this way, we will be able to reflect on and understand our recent past, to better understand the present and contribute to the construction of our future.

The exhibition can be visited from Monday to Friday from 9 am to 8 pm.