Paris colonial exhibition

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Street of the Colonies
Cambodian temple

The Paris Colonial Exhibition (French: " Exposition coloniale Internationale ") took place from May 6 to November 15, 1931 in Paris , France . The aim was to present the diverse cultures and vast resources of the French colonial empire and other colonial empires.

history

The Secretary General of the Colonial Exhibition was Marshal Hubert Lyautey . The exhibition was set up in the Bois de Vincennes on the eastern outskirts of Paris around Lake Daumesnil . Its concept followed previous world exhibitions .

In view of its enormous dimensions, the sculptor Elizabeth Prophet spoke of the " most spectacular colonial performance that the West has ever seen ". The French government brought residents from the colonies to Paris, where they practiced their traditional art and handicraft and presented the variety of their architectural styles in the form of huts or temples. The exhibition also included a “ Völkerschau ” presented in Senegalese settlements . The French “motherland” was represented in a “Section métropolitaine” and in a “Cité des information” the entirety of the French colonial empire was presented. The French colonies then presented themselves in individual pavilions on the south side of Lake Daumesnil. The exhibition on the French colonies took up about half of the exhibition space.

The other half of the exhibition space, north of Lake Daumesnil, was occupied by colonial exhibitions from other nations, such as Belgium , the Netherlands , Italy , Japan , Portugal , the United Kingdom and the United States .

The exhibition area was a Decauville - Park railway opened up on the lying in the middle of the exhibition area Daumesnil Lake was scheduled service rather than ships. Spectacular replicas - including a 12th century Cambodian temple and a mosque in the style of the clay mosques of Timbuktu - were major attractions. The exhibition was accompanied by an extensive program of folklore performances and other attractions. As a permanent and permanent feature of the exhibition, a colonial museum was opened in the Palais de la Porte Dorée built for the exhibition , the only building in the exhibition that still stands today.

intention

France linked the exhibition with the political hope of portraying its colonial empire as a humanitarian enterprise by illuminating the mutual exchange of cultures and the benefits brought about by France overseas. In doing so, it sought to forestall German criticism that France was an " exploiter of the colonies [and] the cause of racial disgrace and decadence ". The exhibition highlighted the role of indigenous cultures in the colonies and downplayed the French effects in spreading their own language and culture in order to spread the opinion that France was connected to the colonies but would not assimilate and alienate them.

success

The colonial exhibition provided a forum for discussion on colonialism in general and on the French colonies in particular. French professionals published over 3,000 articles and hosted over 100 conventions during the six-month event. Colonial writers used it as a welcome opportunity to spread their works and in Paris a market for various exotic cuisines from foreign countries, especially those of North Africa and Vietnam , arose . Filmmakers made the French colonies the subject of their works. The colonial business experienced a general expansion. The exhibition attracted 33 million visitors from all over the world. Prominent visitors to the exhibition included the Duke of York , who later became King George VI. of Great Britain, and his wife .

criticism

Surrealists protested the colonial exhibition in a pamphlet , denounced the massacres in the colonies and affirmed their radical anti-colonialism . " Even if the scandalous Socialist Party and the Jesuit League for Human Rights may not like it, it would be too much to distinguish between a good and a bad way of colonizing ."

A smaller counter-exhibition organized by the PCF and the Ligue de Défense de la Race Nègre under the leadership of Tiemoko Garan Kouyaté entitled La vérité sur les colonies ( The Truth About the Colonies ) showed, among others, Albert Londres 'and André Gides' critical accounts of the Forced labor in the colonies.

transport

A 3,372 m long, ring-shaped railway with a gauge of 600 mm connected the stations Porte d'Honneur, Porte de Reuilly, French Africa, Zoological Garden, Italy / Netherlands and USA / Denmark. There were four trains with Renault - Decauville - locomotives and each with 162 seats in 6 cars. Up to 5 trains could run at the same time, transporting up to 2000 people per hour. A total of 1,736,266 visitors were transported in this way.

gallery

See also

Commons : Paris Colonial Exhibition 1931  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

literature

  • Theresa A. Leininger-Miller: New Negro artists in Paris, African American painters and sculptors in the city of light, 1922-1934. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick NJ 2001. ISBN 0-8135-2810-0
  • Alexander CT Geppert: Fleeting Cities. Imperial Expositions in Fin-de-Siècle Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke 2010. ISBN 9780230221642

Web links

References

  1. ↑ Explanation board in front of the Palais de la Porte Dorée .
  2. ↑ Leininger-Miller: New Negro artists , p. 54.
  3. ↑ Diary, July 14, 1931, quoted in Leininger-Miller: New Negro artists , p. 55.
  4. ↑ a b c d Leininger-Miller: New Negro artists , p. 55.
  5. ^ On the 1931 Colonial Exposition in Paris
  6. ↑ Explanation board in front of the Palais de la Porte Dorée .
  7. ↑ a b c Model of the exhibition grounds in the Palais de la Porte Dorée.
  8. ↑ Catalog Decauville, distribué lors de l'exposition coloniale de 1931. Archives Departmental de l'Essonne (1J / 132). P. 11.
  9. ↑ Explanation board in front of the Palais de la Porte Dorée .
  10. ^ NN: Ne visitez pas L'exposition coloniale . In: Maurice Nadeau: Histoire du surréalisme suvie de documents surréalistes . Paris 1970, pp. 325-327, citation: p. 327.
  11. ↑ L'Exposition Coloniale de Paris in 1931. Les transports dans l Exposition.


Coordinates: 48 ° 49 ′ 50.7 "  N , 2 ° 24 ′ 50.6"  E