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Reflexão
First Portuguese Colonial Exhibition
Leaflet promoting the first colonial exhibition in Porto in 1934.
The front of the leaflet acts as an invitation to the colonial dream. The use of figures of people from the colonized territories, as well as fauna and flora considered “exotic”, builds a visual imaginary associated with colonization, which puts the racist violence of the “empire” in the shade.
On the back, there is a more explicit textual invitation to visit the colonial exhibition, where Portugal promises to demonstrate the “brilliant results of its modern effort and activity” - a reference to the colonial and racist policies in force at the time. The text is, like the image on the front of the leaflet, a romanticization and fabrication of reality, in the form of propaganda, where colonization, death, expropriation and colonial violence are inventively described as part of policies that impose “order, tidiness, discipline on social, political, economic and financial life”.
The invitation is made in Portuguese and English, demonstrating the Estado Novo's interest in attracting a foreign audience as well, through policies that were already beginning a relationship of promiscuous intimacy between Portugal, the “country of the sun”, and tourism.