Paris Colonial Exposition

The Paris Colonial Exposition (French: "Exposure coloniale international ") was a 1931 in Paris, France, held six-month colonial exhibition, which sought to showcase the diverse cultures and immense resources of the French colonial empire. It was opened on 6 May 1931 in Bois de Vincennes on the eastern outskirts of Paris. Given their enormous dimensions, the sculptor Elizabeth Prophet spoke of the " most spectacular colonial performance that have ever experienced the West. " This exhibition saw 33 million visitors from around the world. The French government took residents from the colonies to Paris, where they practiced their traditional art and craftsmanship and should present the diversity of their architectural styles in the shape of huts or temples. Other nations such as Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Japan, Portugal, the United Kingdom and the United States participated in the event. The exhibition comprised a presented in Senegalese villages " Völkerschau " ..

France joined with the exhibition, the political hope to put its colonial empire in a humanitarian light by lighting the mutual exchange of cultures and the benefits brought about by France overseas. Thus, it sought to forestall the German criticism, France was a " exploiters of the colonies [ and ] causes of racial shame and decadence ." The exhibition highlighted the role of the indigenous cultures in the colonies out and played the French effects in the diffusion of their language and culture down, so spread the opinion that France was connected with the colonies, they would not assimilate and strange with it.

The colonial exhibition provided a forum for discussion of colonialism in general and the French colonies in particular. French experts published during the six-month event over 3,000 articles and organized more than 100 conferences. Writer of colonialism used it as a welcome opportunity for the dissemination of their works in Paris and a market for various exotic cuisines of foreign lands arose, especially in North Africa and Vietnam. Filmmakers made ​​the French colonies, the subject of their works. The Permanent Colonial Museum (1960 renamed the Musée des Arts et Africains Océaniens and since 2003 Musée national de l' Histoire de l' Immigration ) was opened as part of the exhibition at the Palais de la Porte Dorée. The colonial business experienced a general extension.

The Surrealists were protesting in a pamphlet against the colonial exhibition, denounced the massacres in the colonies and reaffirmed their radical anti- colonialism. " Although it may the scandalous Socialist Party and the Jesuit League for Human Rights did not like, it would be too much if we were to colonize different between a good and a bad way."

A smaller, organized by the PCF and the Ligue de Défense de la Race Nègre under the leadership of Tiemoko Garan Kouyaté counter exhibition entitled The Truth About the colonies showed, among other things, Albert Londres ' and André Gide's critical depictions of forced labor in the colonies.

Gallery

Madagascar Pavilion

Cameroon Pavilion

Tonkin Pavilion

Cochin China Pavilion

Cambodia Pavilion

Pavilion Martinique

Pavilion of the Netherlands

Pavilion of Belgium