The AfricaMuseum opens the exhibition The Congo Panorama 1913. Colonial illusion exposed.
Together with artists, experts and researchers, the exhibition juxtaposes colonial imagery with historical and contemporary voices, stories, and insights that long remained silent. It opens up a broader conversation about propaganda, colonisation and the long shadow it casts.
The exhibition is built around the Congo Panorama, the main attraction of the Belgian colonial section of the 1913 Ghent World Exhibition. A truly immersive spectacle, the panorama was designed to convince visitors of the alleged "benefits" of Belgium's "civilisation" mission in the Congo. Acts of violence committed by Europeans, forced labour and Congolese rebellions were deliberately omitted. A form of fake news avant la lettre.
Today, more than a century later, the AfricaMuseum is revisiting this megalomaniac and carefully constructed instrument of propaganda using a scale reproduction of the painting. Not to rehabilitate the colonial work and its message, but to offer a counter-narrative.
Collaborations with artists, experts and researchers from the Congo and Belgium provide an international and critical counter-perspective that dismantles the panorama's colonial illusion. Archives, photos and objects, most of them from the AfricaMuseum's collection, offer a vivid picture of what was not shown in 1913. Past and contemporary testimonies further undermine the idyll presented by the panorama.
Lastly, the exhibition invites visitors to draw parallels with contemporary forms of propaganda and disinformation.