greetings from my new home

2018-2020

“The point of departure for Lilla Szász’s photographic project Greetings From My New Home is the story of the retornados, the nearly 800,000 Portuguese citizens who were resettled from Portuguese colonies in Africa (Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, and São Tomé e Príncipe) to Portugal in and around 1975. As a result of the Portuguese colonial war, which began in 1961, the dictatorial Second Republic gradually weakened, and with the military coup of 1974, a rapid process of decolonization began. The accommodation and integration of the retornados, equivalent to nearly a tenth of Portugal’s overall population at the time, was a major challenge for the state and constituted an important chapter in the 20th-century history of the country.

Szász’s photographs capture the personal aspects of this historical event, drawing attention to questions of nostalgia, memory, homelessness, and the plasticity of identity in the lives of those who have left their homes and were able, in varying degrees, to adapt to their new environments. Lilla Szász makes use of a wide array of approaches to portraiture, offering us portraits of people and portraits of places. The points of departure for these private stories were locations, which still exist today, homes of varying quality, from former five-star hotels to military barracks. These sites are the physical repositories of their former dwellers’ memories. The postcard quality of the photographs on display at the exhibition—their size and subject matter, which can be understood as a kind of allusion to the frequent portrayal of hotels on contemporary postcards—conjures a sense of travel, of transience, and offers a reminder of the past. Thus, the images of Greetings From My New Home arrive as messages sent half a century ago.”

Text by Zsuzsanna Szegedy-Maszák

I began to work on this project as part of my Budapest Gallery’s Artist Exchange Program residency in Lisbon. I worked closely together with the sociologist Elsa Peralta.

A photobook grew out of Greetings From My New Home and was published in 2019 an >> it is available to purchase<<

main exhibitions:

2020: Greetings from my new home, Budapest Gallery, Budapest (curator: Zsuzsanna Szegedy-Maszák)
2019: No Place Like Home, La Junqueira Artist Residency, Lisbon (curator: Nuria López de la Oliva)

publications:

2022: Nominated for Rosti Pál Award for the Best Photo Book of the Year (with Greetings From My New Home), Hungarian National Museum

Atlantic Coast north of Lisbon – After Lisbon’s accommodations filled up, people repatriated from the colonies were placed in rural lodgings – hotels, guesthouses, and private rentals. Families who hosted them received a per-capita payment from the Portuguese state, and many profited significantly from this arrangement.

On the way to Hotel Golfmar Vimeiro – Located north of Lisbon, this hotel was once a favored golf retreat of the elite. During the refugee crisis of 1974–1976, golfers and returnees from the African colonies found themselves side by side here.

Hotel Golfmar Vimeiro – This hotel north of Lisbon was a popular destination for the elite before 1974. During the 1974–1976 refugee crisis, it housed both golfers and people returning from the African colonies.

A former guesthouse in Lisbon, now abandoned – Like many other lodgings, it once served as accommodation for the retornados.

Hotel Golfmar Vimeiro – The elite’s former golf resort north of Lisbon also became temporary housing for returnees during the 1974–1976 refugee crisis. The hotel is still in operation today.

Teresa and Antonia – Two retornadas who came back from Angola. Four decades later they returned to Costa da Caparica, where the local campsite had once accommodated thousands of people.

Costa da Caparica – Its campsite became home to thousands of retornados in the mid-1970s.

Teresa and Antonia – The two retornadas from Angola, seen four decades later inside a church in Costa da Caparica.

João, one of the 800,000 retornados – He lived for three years with his family in a cell at the Peniche prison. Six or seven people were housed together in ten-square-meter cells.

Peniche Fortress – A high-security prison used by the Estado Novo regime to detain opponents of the dictatorship, especially members of the Portuguese Communist Party. The fortress is famous for the daring escape of several political prisoners, including the Communist leader Álvaro Cunhal. After the revolution, this notorious prison also served as emergency housing for many retornados, with six or seven people often living for years in tiny ten-square-meter cells.

The Ritz-Carlton (today the Four Seasons Hotel Ritz Lisbon) – This luxury hotel played a curious role in the story of the retornados in Lisbon, symbolizing both the glamour of the city and the hardships faced by those returning from the former colonies.

Hotel Palácio Estoril, Estoril – While not directly tied to the retornados, the hotel is historically linked to Portugal’s colonial era and diaspora. This elegant establishment became a meeting place during the 1970s, occasionally welcoming individuals returning from overseas territories.

Miguel in front of a boarding house near Hotel Golfmar Vimeiro – He lived here for years. The Golfmar itself, once a luxury golf destination north of Lisbon, was shared in the mid-1970s by golfers and retornados arriving from the African colonies.

Hotel das Termas – Many retornados stayed in spa hotels such as this one when they first returned, seeking familiar surroundings, support networks, or simply a place to live while they rebuilt their lives.

Atlantic Coast north of Lisbon – Once Lisbon’s hotels filled up, repatriated families were sent to rural lodgings – hotels, guesthouses, and private homes. Host families received state subsidies per person housed, and many prospered as a result.