5/5 Julian W. 4 years ago on Google
The
Museum
of
Popular
Art
is
a
strange
building
because
it
was
part
of
the
1940
Exposição
do
Mundo
Português
(Portuguese
World
Expo),
a
propagandist
event
showcasing
Portuguese
dominance
in
the
world.
There’s
a
mock-up
in
one
of
the
rooms
of
how
the
expo
grounds
looked.
For
Portuguese,
and
Lisboans
in
particular,
talking
about
the
Salazar-headed
dictatorship
(1933-1974)
is
tricky.
Most
people
want
to
forget
about
it
and
move
on
with
their
lives,
but
the
fact
is
it
happened,
and
people
have
to
acknowledge
it
happened,
otherwise
History
could
repeat
itself.
The
building
housing
the
museum
is
from
“those
days”
and
so
is
treated
with
a
certain
ambivalence
by
the
older
crowd.
However,
the
younger
generation
at
this
museum
were
so
enthusiastic
about
the
art
on
display
-
a
touring
MC
Escher
exhibition
-
that
I
felt
revitalised.
They
all
spoke
excellent
English
and
were
a
credit
to
the
Portuguese
education
system.
Escher
was
an
amazing
drawer
and
his
early
pictures
of
holidays
in
southern
Italy
were
so
well
executed
that
I
wanted
to
visit
those
places
the
following
day.
The
small
Calabrian
villages
were
depicted
nestling
amongst
giant
stones
and
slabs
of
rock.
All
Escher’s
famous
works
bending
reality
were
there
and
I
spent
ages
in
the
gift
shop
working
out
what
I
could
fit
into
my
suitcase.
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