Galerias Municipais in Lisbon present the exhibition The State of the World: The Museum of the South Atlantic at Pavilhão Branco. The exhibition explores the project envisioned by Portuguese philosopher and educator Agostinho da Silva during his years of exile in Brazil: a museum dedicated “to the fraternal capacity of intertwining the diverse” in a post-independence order. On display are works by 13 artists, ethnographic collections, as well as diverse documentation on emancipatory processes in African nations and publications that record the intellectual work of the Portuguese philosopher and educator Agostinho da Silva (1906-1994).

Conceived by da Silva in 1965, “Museu do Atlântico Sul” should be located in the fortress of São Marcelo, in Salvador da Bahia (Brazil), with a collection organized from historical, ethnographic and artistic objects from all countries that would integrate what the Portuguese thinker defined as the “New Equator”. Letters from the archives of the “Center for Afro-Oriental Studies” in Salvador da Bahia, document how he requested objects (sent from African, American and Asian countries) would become part of the museum’s collection. However, The Museum of the South Atlantic was never effectively built, remaining as an idea and a possibility for new forms of cultural and political interaction. Made explicit in two typewritten sheets documenting the invention of the new museum, this museological institution would reveal the “fraternal capacity of intertwining the diverse”.

Photography by © Mercês Tomaz Gomes