Portugal was more than a neutral country in World War II. Welcomed, young artists, spies and inspiration for James Bond
Small but important. Due to its strategic strategy on the globe, Portugal, a viewpoint “the other world”, the USA, for many of those who needed to flee to World War II.
In 1941, when Germany invaded the Soviet Union, in the bitterness of escaping death, many spies from all over Europe arrived in Portuguese territory. Many weeks, some ended up staying months, until they went to other places. This year, therefore, was particularly important for the history of Portugal, in this relationship with the war that is being lived on the continent.
After more than 15 years of research, the historian, writer and professor at University College London, Neill Locherygathers in a exhibition more than a hundred photographs, videos and documents that prove how, in particular the hiatus between February and the end of summer, turned out to be a microcosm for the Portugal’s relationship with the second world war, against the backdrop of security resulting from the neutrality of the country ruled by Salazar.
“1941: Guggenheim and Fleming, Artists and Spies in World War II Portugal” has doors open to the public, with free entry, starting this Monday, the 4th, at the Town Hall of the Porto City Council.
The exhibition aims to show above all how intense this short period of Portuguese history was. “It’s not just about Porto or Lisbon, it encapsulates the whole country in the year 1941”, reveals Emma Lochery, the exhibition’s curator, to Expresso.specialist in art and culture.
Portugal-foreseen as one of the last escape points for refugees from Europe, we were either wanted for death and the destruction of all conflict escape points in Europe. Among the influential arrived here, many artists managed to arrive.
They were in Portugal, illustrating how the American writer Kay Boyle, the French artist Laurence Vail or the French poet André Breton. Also the German artist Max Ernst, painter, sculptor and poetan English-born Mexican artist Leonora Carrington, the painter Marc Chagallor a famous American art collector Peggy Guggenheim businessman across the country in 1941.
But Portugal was also chosen by spiesincluding the intelligence officer, Ian Fleming, who will ensure Operation Planar the well-known Goldeneyewhich, later, would serve as an inspiration for him to write “Casino Royale”, the first book about the secret agent James Bond, published in 1953.
More than mere transitory figures, the exhibition documents show how Guggenheim and Fleming were active observers of life and especially of Portuguese society, influenced by the events they experienced here during that period when, wrongly, for the curator, “there is a perception that involvement does not exist. But it is certain that Portugal played a very important role, first of all for having sheltered the refugees.”
Emma Lochery looks at the images of whole families arriving by boat and train, understanding the past is always an asset to the present. “Unfortunately, when people see the exhibition, they will feel that history is repeating itself”.