Gezicht op een drijvend plateau met dansers op de Wereldtentoonstelling van Antwerpen in 1894 1894

Charles Bernhoeft created this photograph of a floating dance platform at the 1894 Antwerp World Fair. The image captures a moment of leisure and spectacle that was very deliberately staged in the context of the World Fair, a place of cultural exchange and celebration of industrial progress. In this image, we see dancers, a boat with what looks like the American flag, and a building that is decorated with flags of various nations. Belgium in the 1890s was at the height of its colonial project in Congo and was eager to present itself as a modern, progressive nation. The image is charged with the political project of promoting a specific view of Belgium. It also speaks to the role of photography in shaping cultural memory and solidifying a certain worldview. To fully understand the implications of this photograph, we would want to look at records of the fair itself, but also at the broader history of Belgian colonialism.