Abstract

The exhibitions, promoted and attended by the Fascist régime, repeatedly dealt with the colonies even when Italy had not yet been formally granted the status of Empire. This article aims to explore the representation of the Oltremare before and after 1936 through a number of case studies, paying particular attention to the numerous installations through which the colonial territories and their inhabitants were portrayed and/or concealed. The interaction between the myth of Rome and the practice of exoticization provides an opportunity to explore the different functions assigned to the image of the colonies. This concentrates on a decade in which the legitimization of expansionist ambitions was followed by the need to organize (and administer) Italian East Africa, and to promote it as a testimony to the country’s renewed international power.