How much is a vote worth?
Perhaps there is no other situation in our lives in which each of us has, exactly and strictly speaking, the same value in society and in a democracy.
Every vote has the same value. In a free vote, there are no distinctions; there is no room for prejudice or social class. There are no limitations based on gender, power, strength, literacy, or economic status.
This is probably one of the reasons why the act of voting is so special to us, a sentiment shared by the entire team responsible for the exhibition.
Many of us did not live through April 25th, 1974, just as we did not experience the inability to vote or to fully exercise civic freedoms in Portugal. The exhibition “There Will Be Elections 1975: The First Free Elections in Portugal” celebrates the freedom associated with the act of voting in Portugal, from the first free elections held on April 25th, 1975.
The promise of elections and the difficulties encountered on the path to their realisation are two of the central themes of this exhibition of historical and documentary content. Following the April 1974 Revolution, it was necessary to draft specific legislation, register the population, explain voting procedures, print ballot papers, and build voting booths and logistical infrastructure that would enable — as was the case on election day — 92% of registered Portuguese voters to express their political will.
The original design of the first voting booths served as the starting point for the creation of display units intended to house a diverse range of documents and audiovisual content, carefully selected by the curatorial team.
The modular booth, as a display unit, grows throughout the exhibition until it appears in its entirety in the final section. The colour evolves from grey — associated with the period prior to April 25th, 1974 — to red, the colour of the carnations of the Revolution, which is also the colour that, in our imagination, evokes energy, unity, and strength.
The exhibition modules are self-contained and portable, allowing for the touring that the content and audiences deserve, so that the message can travel throughout the country. This itinerancy serves as a driving force for the political commitment inherent in culture and in the act of staging exhibitions, especially in this case, where the content itself belongs to the political sphere within a particularly complex international context.
The exhibition itself, as a public space, aims to celebrate our freedom to inform ourselves and discuss issues of the past as well as the present.
“Now that we have freedom, what are we going to do with it?”
Maria Antónia Palla, journalist, RTP Archive
Carine Pimenta
CREDITS
Project: BUREAU (Daniel Zamarbide, Carine Pimenta, Galliane Zamarbide)
Project execution: Carine Pimenta (project manager), Daniel Zamarbide, Romane Guillou, Valentin Racine, Finia Sonderegger
Construction supervision: Carine Pimenta
Publication drawings: Valentin Racine
Context: Exhibition “There will be Elections . 1975: the first free elections in Portugal ” - Initiative of the 50th Anniversary of 25 April Commemorative Committee
Location: Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
