The Municipal Programme ping! presents “Encenação do Império Colonial”, from 17 to 19 June

The third and last moment of the axis “Um Elefante no Palácio de Cristal", curated by Alexandra Balona, Melissa Rodrigues and Nuno Coelho, with the collaboration of InterStruct Collective, features a debate, two workshops and a cinema session.

“Encenação do Império Colonial” delivers a historical-political review of the “Primeira Exposição Colonial Portuguesa” (“First Portuguese Colonial Exhibition”, free translation) and other colonial displays, and its reminiscences within the collective memory and the current urban space.

The programme kicks-off on 17 June, at 7 pm, with a debate between Bruno Sena Martins, researcher at CES — Centre for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra (coordinator of the Doctoral programme Human Rights in Contemporary Societies) and Patrícia Ferraz Matos, anthropologist and researcher of the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon, moderated by Alexandra Balona, researcher at the centre of Communication Studies and Culture of the Faculties of Human Sciences and the Portuguese Catholic University and the independent curator.

The following day, on 18 June, between 2 and 6 pm, the designer and researcher Bárbara Neves Alves will deliver a workshop focused on the “Monumento ao Esforço Colonizador Português” [“Monument to the Portuguese Colonizer Effort”, free translation], followed by a debate to discuss the monument and the space in the city.

A little later, at 7 pm, time to watch "Visões do Império", a film by Joana Gomes on how the Portuguese Empire and its history have been imagined, documented and publicised, from a photographic record.

On Saturday, 19 June, between 10 am and 1 pm, the agenda features Interstruct Collective, - Atlas III, workshop and path by the gardens -, a project that combines the three subthemes of the programme. This represents a relational cartography between images, words and concepts regarding the “First Portuguese Colonial Experience” and its legacy.

The activities, free and open to the general public, take place at the Auditorium of the Municipal Library Almeida Garrett. Prior collection of the ticket is mandatory, on the same day (maximum two per person), starting at 10 pm and up to 15 minutes before the start of each event.

It is possible to previously book a place, via the email galeriamunicipal@agoraporto.pt.

As regards the workshop, a previous registration is mandatory. Participants will be selected according to the “first-arrive-first served” rule, even regarding emails.

All information on ping! and related agenda can be consulted at the website of Porto’s Municipal Library.