Unique photographs of the Carnation Revolution on display at Porto City Hall

This Thursday, 25 April, the main lobby of Porto City Hall hosts the exhibit "A Substância do Tempo - 25 fotografias de Sérgio Valente, 45 anos depois do 25 de Abril" ["The Substance of Time - 25 pictures by Sérgio Valente, 45 years after the 25th April", free translation], curated by Carlos Magno and produced by the Municipality of Porto. The exhibit opens at 12 o'clock. The exhibit will be inaugurated by the Mayor of Porto, Rui Moreira. Entrance is free.

The 25 April marks the Carnation Revolution (Revolução dos Cravos in Portuguese), which overthrew the authoritarian regime of the Estado Novo, in 1974. The revolution started as a military coup organized by military officers of the Armed Forces Movement -MFA, who opposed the regime. However, the civil population adhered massively to the movement and the struggle for democracy; for that reason, the regime's reaction was practically non-existent. The Estado Novo was overthrown and Portugal withdrew from its African colonies.

This movement is called "Carnation Revolution" because almost no shots were fired (four people were killed) and the population took to the streets to commemorate the end of the dictatorship and war in the colonies, by putting carnations into the muzzles of rifles and on the uniforms of the army men.

Sérgio Valente is a Resistance photographer, who has documented the Carnation Revolution. He resisted to the fascist regime and recorded the aftermath of the conflict for future remembering.

The day Portugal won its freedom, Valente took to the street without his mythic Rolleicord, carrying with him but his amateur camera, which he almost forgot to use.

His photos of the 25 April are in fact those of the following days of the Revolution.

Visitors to the exhibit can expect to see surprise and astonishment of freedom per se, on the faces of anonymous passers-by and citizens celebrating or just minding their ordinary lives, captured by the lenses of Sérgio Valente.

The photos will be made public and will be on show at Porto City Hall main Lobby for two weeks.

"Skimming through the negative of pictures by Sérgio Valente, we are surprised by people, by manifestations and faces, figures and facts included in the ongoing revolutionary process. The legacy of Sérgio Valente should be asserted as a sequence of pre-revolution events, but that should be seen as the Revolution itself", wrote Carlos Magno, who challenged the Mayor of Porto to show this photos during the celebration of Freedom Day and the 45 years of the Revolution.

 "Between the Praça da Liberdade and the City Hall of Porto, alongside the statue of Garrett in the General Humberto Delgado Square, there is the stage of a fearless city, whose metamorphosis Sérgio Valente and other photographers recorded", declared the curator, Carlos Magno.

"The 25 April was the meeting point of our mismatches, and the Avenida dos Aliados is still the space that links Porto with itself. We can all see ourselves in the photos of the crowds, the parties and the celebrations, the political or sports manifestations", Carlos Magno adds.

This exhibit, produced by Porto City Hall, is included in the celebration of the 25th April, organised by the Commission on Celebrations of 25th April in Porto, which are also supported by Porto City Hall.

Celebrating the 25th April marks an event of massive historical significance for Portugal. Celebrations begin with two concerts on the 24 April at Avenida dos Aliados. The activities programme include concerts, displays of fireworks and revolution-décor at Avenida dos Aliados, in the city of Porto, to celebrate Freedom day, on April 25.