ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the spaces of the Italian colonial exposition as phantasmatic extensions of the colonial context, doubly removed from the ground of representation of the colony and the metropolitan contexts in which they were inserted. It explores how exchanges were absorbed by metropolitan populations and subsequently reciprocated within modern colonial spaces. The first Italian expositions, colonial or otherwise, were thus drawn from this lack, a diminished position from which Italy had to absolve itself in order to reach the economic and political dimensions of other colonizing nations. Colonial expositions were ultimately marketplaces, mechanisms for the Italian government's propaganda as well as for the companies that sponsored the pavilions. Expositions became graphic exercises to further economic and industrial development in the colonies and the nation. The African collections governed by these institutional bodies were the basis for the founding of the Museo Coloniale di Roma as well as other significant ethnographic collections on the Italian peninsula.
