Deconstructing Colonialism, Decolonising the Imaginary

The exhibition aims to present the outlines of Portuguese colonialism in Africa in the 19th and 20th centuries, and it aims to deconstruct the myths created by colonial ideology, decolonise Portuguese imagery and contribute, in an educational and accessible way, to a renewal of knowledge about the Portuguese colonial question.

Two central axes structure the exhibition’s narrative. The first axis is organised in thematic panels, in which text and image are articulated, highlighting the outlines of Portuguese colonialism in the 19th and 20th centuries, and giving the word to historical knowledge. The second axis aims to ‘make African works of art speak’, as material evidence of African thought and culture, highlighting the organisational complexity of the social and cultural systems of these societies, making it possible to show African creativity, vitality, wisdom, rationality, identity diversity and skills, and helping to highlight and deconstruct the falsifying nature of Portuguese colonial myths.

This second axis of the exhibition is formed by a selection of 139 works, divided between the collections of the National Museum of Ethnology, including some pieces on deposit from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the collector Francisco Capelo, and works of contemporary African art by artists Lívio de Morais, Hilaire Balu Kuyangiko and Mónica de Miranda.

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