The Cabildo de Lanzarote, through the Lanzarote Data and Digital Memory Center, inaugurated this morning at La Casa Amarilla the international exhibition Macaronesia 1975-2025, an exhibition that reviews five decades of shared history among the Atlantic archipelagos of the Canary Islands, Madeira, Cape Verde and the Azores.
The exhibition, which opened its doors last February at La Casa Colón in Las Palmas, in June at the Museu de Fotografia da Madeira – Atelier Vicente's (Funchal), and which has also recently been presented in Praia, Cape Verde, now arrives in Lanzarote as part of its itinerary through the Macaronesian space. Its next stop will be the Azores archipelago, where it will be inaugurated in autumn.
Curated by Gabriel Betancor, the exhibition brings together around 95 pieces including photographs, archival documents and audiovisual materials from public collections and institutions in the four participating territories. Through this visual and documentary journey, the exhibition proposes a reflection on the main social, political and cultural processes that have marked the development of these regions since 1975.
1975 as a turning point
The exhibition takes the year 1975 as a socio-political turning point for the Macaronesian archipelagos. The Carnation Revolution in 1974 and the death of Franco, the Spanish dictator, in 1975 forced the metropolises to reform their systems of domination over the Atlantic spaces.
From there, and up to the present 2025, the exhibition takes a visual look back at these five decades of history, analyzing the changes from a political point of view (arrival of democracy, armed struggle movements,...); economic (the transition from the rural and fishing world to mass tourism, integration into the EU,...); social (health, education, incorporation of women into the labor market,...); and cultural (modernity vs. traditions,...).
During the opening ceremony, the councilor of the Lanzarote Cabildo Data Center, Ascensión Toledo Hernández, underlined "the value of this collaboration as an opportunity to reflect, through art and memory, on the past and common future of our Atlantic peoples". She also thanked "the rigorous and committed work of the La Casa Amarilla team and all the institutions that have made this itinerary possible".
For his part, the curator of the exhibition, Gabriel Betancor, pointed out that "the proposal of 'Macaronesia 1975-2025' does not intend to offer a closed or definitive vision, but to open questions about our shared identity, our differences and the common challenges we face as Atlantic archipelagos". He added that the project "has been built from horizontal collaboration between teams from different territories, with the aim of generating a choral, diverse narrative open to public debate".
The exhibition is organized by the Cabildos of Gran Canaria and Lanzarote, the Museu de Fotografia da Madeira – Atelier Vicente's, the Public Library and Regional Archive of Ponta Delgada (Azores), the National Archive Institute of Cape Verde, and has the collaboration of the Government of the Canary Islands and the airline Binter.
Until September 27
Macaronesia 1975-2025 can be visited free of charge at La Casa Amarilla (Arrecife) until September 27. Admission is free and opening hours are: Monday to Friday from 10.00 to 14.00, and from 14.30 to 18.00. Saturdays from 10.00 to 14.00 and Sundays and holidays closed.
