Expositie van de Franse koloniën tijdens de wereldtentoonstelling te Antwerpen 1894

This photograph by Th. Lantin documents the French colonies exhibition at the Antwerp World Fair in 1894. World’s fairs were essentially designed to showcase the industrial, technological, and cultural achievements of nations, but they often did so within a framework of imperial power. France, like other European countries at the time, had extensive colonial holdings. The exhibition serves as a visual representation of the relationship between colonizer and colonized. In the image, we see a constructed space filled with artifacts, textiles, and objects brought from French colonies. Consider the politics of display here. These items, taken out of their original context, were presented as curiosities for the consumption of a European audience. What does it mean to create a spectacle of another culture, and how does this relate to the project of colonialism? By looking at documents, archives, and publications related to the Antwerp World Fair, we can further understand the social and institutional contexts that shaped the event, and question what values they were trying to convey.