Elsewhere in this blog we have talked about the exhibitions that the School Museum carried out in the city during the nineties, exhibitions that, without a doubt, were important events in the development of our Project. Today we want to remember the presence of Pusol in the Agricultural, Industrial and Commercial Fair of Elche (FAIC), held since the eighties in the city, which sought to combine an eminently economic purpose with the leisure and cultural offer of our environment.

In 1985 the first major exhibition was held by the museum, on the occasion of its participation in the fourth edition of the fair. At the request of the Cooperativa del Campo de Elche, the team from Pusol -that is, Don Fernando, a group of children/as, some/as parents and members of the Association of Neighbors of the heading[1]- prepared a small exhibition on the reproduction of the palm tree and the production of wine, which was one of the main attractions of the event. Various tools, ceramic pieces, pictures and photographs, as well as insect collections prepared by the students/s, completed a unique presentation, the most important of those made until then by our center. FAIC-85 became a great public showcase for the School Museum, which organized a didactic and evocative exhibition, applauded by the local press which, however, by then already echoed the precarious means that hindered our operation, that contrasted, they argued, with the enthusiasm of the collective that represented it. From then on, the museum will collaborate in successive editions of this fair, of which it will become one of its main attractions.

Thus, in 1986 it will reproduce an old rural cuisine and will show, once again, various aspects of the winemaking and the works of the palm tree. A year later (1987) will recreate several rooms of the traditional farmhouse and will exhibit a sample of the work around the wheat and, also, the palm tree. In 1988 new innovations were introduced, by reproducing a block and making an exhibition on the work of hemp, in collaboration with the homonymous museum of Callosa de Segura and with former spinners of Crevillente. On this occasion, the exhibition included the exhibition of a disappeared craft, contextualizing the exhibited pieces. We can affirm that the emotionality of this show -the traditional hemp yarn was remembered and is still remembered in Elche- managed to create a greater communication with the visitors/ as, once again, the unanimous applause of the media. On the other hand, the collaboration with museums outside the city meant a turning point for our center, which from now on was preparing to develop joint activities in nearby municipalities. In fact, after the hiatus of 1989 -year in which, paradoxically, the museum did not exhibit at the event, because only some objects were placed in a municipal stand-, in 1990, Pusol organized an exhibition on the palm tree in Callosa de Segura, opening the way to future common initiatives and becoming known in the neighboring region of Vega Baja. In the ninth edition (1990) an exhibition was mounted on traditional hunting in El Hondo, a theme that ended the participation of the center in this fair that, as such, would cease to be held soon after.

Subsequently, the museum also attended other similar exhibitions, among others, several editions of the Cultural and Study Days of the Elche Field, denomination with which was baptized an event focused from now on in the Field and, in a way, continuation of the disappeared FAIC. At least in seven editions (2001 - 2007), Pusol participated in these Conference.

Later came the Fireta del Camp d'Elx, current name of a contest that, in short, tries to bring the countryside to the city. In the Fireta, the Pusol Museum has been present in practically all editions, although we remember the one of 2011, with an exhibition that was organized in the didactic room of the Archaeological and History Museum of Elche "Alejandro Ramos Folqués"; and the one of 2015, with a complete sample on the olive tree in which the philosophy of our Project was also made known. Finally, we would suggest that, in parallel to the current Fireta del Camp d'Elx, a study day should be held on the Ilicitan rural environment, beyond the commercial and playful nature of all the activities that take place during the weekend in which they are programmed.

Author: Rafa Martínez, director of the Pusol Project.

[1]Diario La Verdad, nº 25.026, May 2, 1985, s.p.