In the centre of Luanda in Angola, a neon sign on a three-storey
building still marks the presence of the Hotel Globo. Despite its decadent
condition, the modernist building retains the grandeur that marked the apogee
of modernist architecture overseas. Apparently, it continues to function
as a hotel although the majority of the rooms are empty and there are no tourists.
In fact, there are few tourists in Luanda. The hotel is a temporary home for
Angolans from the provinces, the diaspora, and also local artists.
The abandonment of the original function of colonial buildings and their
appropriation and recreation by the local population produces a metaphor for
colonial-era places – including the Hotel Globo – and their repercussions in
the memory and culture of Portuguese-speaking Africa. The Hotel Globo brings
together stories of resistance, adaptation, and inquiry. The spaces depicted
here show fragments of the lives of new guests, who move here not as owners but
as residents. The web of social, cultural and political relations that are then
constructed incorporates pre-existing symbols and images, in a process in which
values of territory, belonging and identity are recovered and simultaneously
reconstructed.
Conferences
Ana Balona de
Oliveira - July 22th - 6:30 pm
Carlos Garrido Castellano - September 17th - 6:30 pm
Ana Vaz Milheiro - September 24th - 6:30 pm
