Carnations and Velvet / reprise in Lisbon Art and Revolution in Portugal and Czechoslovakia 1968–1974–1989 20. 7. 2024 – 27. 10. 2024
Curators: Adelaide Ginga (MNAC, Lisbon), Sandra Baborovská
Despite sporadic historical relations and a great mutual lack of knowledge of the artistic scene of each country, Portugal and Czechoslovakia present numerous correspondences in the chronological historical period that falls between three key dates: 1968-1974-1989. It was this conclusion that the curators reached in 2014, year zero of this project. In-depth research between them over five years resulted in the first exhibition with this theme and title, in 2019, at the Municipal Gallery of Prague, celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution, and is now reorganized, at MNAC, on the 50th anniversary of the Revolution of Carnations.
As a common starting point is the year 1968. The Prague Spring and the Marcelist Spring mark the first moments of hope in a political reform of the existing authoritarian regimes in Czechoslovakia and Portugal, which ended in failure, with particular coercion in Prague. The years 1974 and 1989 mark, respectively, the dates of the revolutions that allowed, peacefully, to achieve freedom in both countries: the Carnation Revolution, which took place on April 25, 1974, in Portugal, and the Velvet Revolution , on November 17, 1989, in Czechoslovakia.
The exhibition project includes a comparative chronology of historical facts from the two countries, from 1960 to the 1990s, extensively illustrated with photographs, newspaper articles, posters, books and other materials. It also evokes the episode of 50 thousand roses, in which a delegation of young Portuguese decided to travel to Prague, in December 1989, to deliver 50,000 roses to supporters of freedom and revolution in Czechoslovakia.
