REVOLUTIONS: Guinea-Bissau, Angola and Portugal (1969-1974) – photographs by Uliano Lucas

Curator: Elisa Alberani, Miguel Cardina and Vincenzo Russo

The exhibition “REVOLUTIONS – Guinea-Bissau, Angola and Portugal (1969-1974)”, by Uliano Lucas, is the story of a journey made of several journeys. The 56 photographs brought together here, some unpublished, others published in Italy in photographic catalogues in the 1970s or in magazines and European newspapers of the time, constitute only a sample of Uliano Lucas’ vast collection of images on this subject.

The exhibition is divided into three parts which correspond to three territories photographed by Uliano Lucas between 1969 and 1974: the first section, entitled Guinea-Bissau, 1969, brings together some of the photographs taken during the mission that took him to the “liberated zones” of Guinea, at the request of the PAIGC; the second section – Angola, 1972 – includes images of the daily life of the MPLA’s male and female guerrillas; the third and final section is entitled Portugal, 1972 and 1974 and portrays aspects of daily life in the country during the final period of the dictatorship (1972) and the days of celebration of the Revolution (1974).

Uliano Lucas’ photographs are being exhibited for the first time in Portugal. There is no more propitious occasion than the year 2023, on the eve of the celebrations of the fiftieth anniversary of the “Carnation Revolution” and of the independence of Angola, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Cape Verde and São Tomé and Príncipe. Published today, Uliano Lucas’ photographs contribute to short-circuiting the memory of pasts that marked the history of the 20th century, bringing them back to the present.

Co-organized by:
Aljube Museum Resistance and Freedom; EGEAC; Italian Institute of Culture of Lisbon; University of Milan; Centre for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra; António Lobo Antunes Chair; Edições do Saguão, Uliano Lucas Archive.