Paper short abstract:

This proposal aims at reflecting on the presence of women in photographs and other representations, such as drawings, posters, postcards, exhibition catalogues, newspapers and magazines, which were disseminated in the context of the Portuguese colonial expositions and similar spaces.

Paper long abstract:

This proposal aims at reflecting on the presence of women in photographs and other representations, such as drawings, posters, postcards, exhibition catalogues, newspapers and magazines, which were disseminated in the context of the Portuguese colonial expositions, and in exhibition spaces conceived by the Portuguese where the colonial component was included. Generally speaking, the exhibitions sought to put forward the progress achieved, taking into account land , rail and sea transports, but also roads, communications, trade, industry, arts, architecture, culture, and the most recent advancements in science and medicine. The exhibitions were also places where the logic of colonial models was staged, showing a clear relationship between colonial domination and genre representation. The research includes several materials produced throughout the 1930s (a fertile period regarding the Portuguese participation in this kind of events) intended to publicize these exhibitions or serve as its complement. These materials may include art works or merely propagandistic works, or works that combine both components. I will seek to analyse the contexts in which women appear and the way they are represented — as active beings (performing tasks), as contemplative beings (as in natural landscapes) or still as objects of sexual desire, revealing the context of power (legislative, administrative, male and colonial) in which the images and the representations were produced.