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Fotoausstellung: ANGOLA CINEMAS – EINE FIKTION VON FREIHEIT

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Credits

Name: Fotoausstellung: ANGOLA CINEMAS – EINE FIKTION VON FREIHEIT

Guest: Hurst, Miguel

Abstract

This collection of photos by Angolan photographer Walter Fernandes gives us an insight into the fascinating and as yet relatively unknown architecture of Angolan cinemas. Architects designed cinemas that were better adapted to the tropical climate, and they sprung up from 1930 until the end of the Portuguese colonial era in 1975. Their futuristic and visionary characteristics show that experimental architects in the colonies enjoyed more artistic freedom than their counterparts in Portugal, which was under a dictatorship: “While the first cinemas bore the architectural features of the authoritarian regime of António de Oliveira Salazar – closed rooms, private boxes, nationalist symbolism – the later constructions embodied something of a breaking free from the shackles of the Portuguese dictator. The cinemas became more airy... some were even designed as open-air cinemas with no roofs.” (Süddeutsche Zeitung). The exhibition is based on the photography book

ANGOLA CINEMAS by Walter Fernandes and Miguel Hurst, which was published for the Goethe-Institut by Steidl Verlag.