Paper short abstract:

This paper will analyze the press discourses about the Balinese performances as an entertainment for the public, as well as a device used to display an "effect of authenticity" to the Paris Colonial Exhibition of 1931.

Paper long abstract:

'Even at the Colonial Exhibition, in this Balinese theater, we may be in the extremes of the Asian sensibility and at the borders of a primitive and savant beauty': this is a short extract of a Florent Fels' article, where he describes the performance of the Balinese group at Paris' Colonial Exhibitionof 1931, published at 'Vu : journal de la semaine', the 08 July 1931. However, it was a Fels friend, Antonin Artaud, who wrote the most known text about them: 'On the Balinese Theater'. Antonin Artaud's narrative was, in a certain way, very similar to the press one. Before Artaud's arrival, several positive reviews about the Balinese performances appeared in the press. Furthermore, the analyses about the Balinese performances became more complex in the course of the months, as the Balinese group became the great artistic sensation of the Exhibition. Media coverage was even intensified after the fire which destroyed the Dutch Pavilion, on the dawn of June 28th. This paper will analyze the press discourses about the Balinese performances as an entertainment for the public, as well as a device used to display an "effect of authenticity" to the Exhibition itself.