The exhibition «LOULÉ. Territories, Memories, Identities”, which opens today, 21 June, at the National Archeology Museum, in Lisbon, shows more than seven millennia of human occupation in what is the largest municipality in the Algarve and one of the largest in the country. It shows “the soul of that people”, as noted by Dália Paulo, one of the exhibition's general coordinators.
In addition to the 504 cultural assets from 35 of the 154 archaeological sites identified in the territory of Loulé - many of which are shown here for the first time -, there is an entire section dedicated to Identities, where, in large and expressive photographs in black and white by archaeologist Pedro Barros, the faces of the finders and guardians of the objects and sites that make up the exhibition are shown. They are the faces of Loulé, Portuguese and foreigners, more or less anonymous people who share a love for this land and the preservation of its memory.
Dália Paulo emphasizes that the name of the exhibition refers to Identities and Memories, in the plural. And these can either have to do with «the archaeological site that is kept because it is owned by a proud Loulé, or with Manuel Viegas Guerreiro, Loulé by birth, who was director of the National Archeology Museum. There is this special connection». In other words, “we put on the main stage these people who did us the favor of guarding this heritage”. The exhibition “doesn't reject any of this, but rather merges it all. They are archaeological sites, they are objects, but they are also people».
And there are also the smells of Loulé: rosemary, thyme, fennel and other aromatic herbs, which Antonieta Canteiro, an archeology technician from the Loulé Museum, went to collect in the barrocal and took to Lisbon, at the request of the director of the National Archaeological Museum, António Oak. These scents will be there today, at the opening of the exhibition, which will be attended by the Minister of Culture and other members of the Government.
This exhibition is the result of 15 months of preparation work and about 50 technicians from the most varied specialties and origins. It results, above all, from a great “complicity”, as António Carvalho, director of the MNA, pointed out during the visit for journalists, promoted on Monday, in which the Sul Informação participated.
“It's very interesting how a team with such a variable geometry, so complicit, was formed. There are 42 authors here, five commissioners, three consultants, one writer, three universities». But there are many more people involved in the production of this exhibition, technicians from both the National Archeology and the Loulé museums, in a work of «true cooperation and complicity» as had never been done in any other exhibition at the main archaeological museum in the country .
António Carvalho underlined that the responsibility for this posture was «the way the mayor of Loulé has positioned himself since the beginning. Right after signing the protocol, he appealed for the two teams to come together and share a bible of concepts. For the scale of this task, many people were given a lot of freedom! And people organized themselves on the ground without the need for outside intervention». «It is a special moment that we live here!», guaranteed António Carvalho.
“People worked with great freedom, got involved, fell in love”, stressed, for his part, mayor Vítor Aleixo.
In addition to what, starting today and for a year, it will be possible to see in one of the wings of the National Archeology Museum, located in Mosteiro dos Jerónimos, in Lisbon, this exhibition leaves many other fruits. For now, according to Dália Paulo, the number of known archaeological sites in the municipality of Loulé has gone from 125 to 154. And all of them are now located and registered in Endovélico, the site that would list all the country's archaeological sites.
«Having all this information systematized is very good», stressed the exhibition coordinator.
Another result of the work is the «traceability of the archaeological remains of Loulé, dispersed throughout the country, in public and private collections», namely in other museums, such as the National Archeology Museum, Figueira da Foz, Lagos, de Faro, by Silves, among others. More than 1000 cultural objects were mapped, of which 504 are in the exhibition.
And there was also an «investment in the conservation and restoration of the assets that are here», as António Carvalho pointed out. 160 pieces were restored, a bet that "is not just for this exhibition, it has to do with the dignity of the property and its future conservation," he added.
Finally, there was a collection that was handed over to other institutions and that, because of this exhibition, has now passed into the hands of the Municipal Museum of Loulé. This is the case of the pieces from the prehistoric site of Corte João Marques, excavated in 1978 by archaeologist Victor S. Gonçalves, scientific commissioner of the exhibition's Pre-History Nucleus, and which, since the late 70s, were kept and far from the public gaze at UNIARQ, the Center for Archeology of the University of Lisbon.
All of this, noted the director of the National Archeology Museum, is "an important prelude to the Loulé City Council wanting to make any changes to its museum." And the Loulé Chamber wants, as its president Vítor Aleixo announced, also present at the journalists' visit.
«This is the good moment to launch the project for the Cultural Quarter of the city of Loulé, which includes the expansion of the Municipal Museum, having already purchased an adjoining building», revealed the mayor.
For now, Dália Paulo has no doubts that "the museological reality of Loulé will change" as of this Wednesday. Because this exhibition “will be photographed by thousands of people”, MNA visitors from all over the world. In fact, with them in mind, the show is designed in three languages.
But accessibility will still be guaranteed in other ways: there are “real archaeological pieces that can be touched”, which is an absolute innovation in the MNA's exhibitions. And soon there will be audio description for the blind. “Please touch and feel, it will be one of the mottos of this exhibition”, explained Dália Paulo.
In addition, an expert from the Directorate General for Cultural Heritage rewrote the texts accompanying the exhibition, “to make them easier” for the general public.
After the inauguration, which is scheduled for 18:30 pm today, the exhibition will be on display for "at least a year", as revealed by Chamber president Vítor Aleixo. Today, a bus full of Loulé residents – among whom are eight of the finders and guardians of the heritage portrayed – will invade the National Archeology Museum.
But the mayor wants that, over the next year, "this exhibition reaches every Loulé person", foreseeing to bring to Lisbon "as many people as possible". This will start with students from schools and colleges in the county who, until December, will visit the MNA exhibition.
“We want everyone to be able to have this opportunity, leaving outside their usual context, to confront the very rich archaeological heritage, which even surprised me, in the municipality of Loulé”, added Vítor Aleixo.
For the mayor, this exhibition is important to affirm Loulé beyond its image as a municipality linked to tourism and the beach. «These seven millennia of history will surprise those who visit the exhibition and give a new image of our territory. But even Loulés will be surprised. Loulé people are already proud and proud of their land, but now they will pass from a diffuse feeling to a proven feeling that this land that inhabits us has deep roots».
With the exhibition, emphasizes Vítor Aleixo, “we show that we are a people who take good care of their heritage and are proud of it. We are not just any ones, we are these, with this story!».
Even for tourists, who, after all, are the main engine of Loulé's economy, the exhibition will be very useful. «It is the opportunity to show them a heritage that from now on will be studied, characterized, recovered, which is an identity component that will greatly enhance the tourist offer».
But it will not only be in Lisbon that there will be initiatives linked to the «LOULÉ. Territories, Memories, Identities». Also "in the most remote places" of the Algarve county, activities will be promoted. «It will be a bidirectional exhibition», explains Dália Paulo.
And, throughout the year of the exhibition, there will be other activities at the MNA that will keep the initiative in the mouths of the world: the catalog will be launched, which is being printed by the National Press Casa da Moeda and integrates, among what is normal in a catalogue, texts conceived especially for this purpose by the writer Lídia Jorge, born in Loulé. There will also be the launch of other publications or lectures and guided tours.
It remains to be said that this exhibition dedicated to seven millennia of human occupation in the territory that is today the municipality of Loulé does not even forget the millions of years before man appeared on the face of the Earth. And so, before entering the exhibition itself, in the MNA's lobby, there will be an exhibitor dedicated to the important paleontological discoveries made in the interior of Loulé, in the area of Rocha da Pena. There it will be, for those who want to know it first hand, the Metoposaurus algarvensis, a genus of 227-million-year-old giant salamander, a new species discovered in the sandstone of the Penina area.
"The idea of making this trip of millions of years was given by the president of the Chamber Vítor Aleixo, who launched the challenge to follow what is being done, in terms of research, in the territory", explained the director of the National Museum of Archeology . This chapter of “Loulé before Man”, emphasized António Carvalho, “is not exactly part of the exhibition, because even in physical terms it is out”.
Inside, a wing of more than 300 square meters of the Jerónimos Monastery reveals «LOULÉ. Territories, Memories, Identities», presenting an innovative exhibition design, which was in charge of the architect Maria Manuela Fernandes.
The pieces are displayed in 10 showcases and nine islands, divided into three sections and eight cores. The Territories section presents the municipality in its diversity between the coast, the mountains and the Barrocal, through large format photographs by Pedro Barros.
In the Memories section, six cores are presented, in chronological order (Prehistory, Protohistory, Romano, Late Antiquity, Islamic and Medieval) and finally, in the Identities section, the faces of finders, caretakers and donors of cultural goods in Loulé are revealed.
In addition to the showcases and islands, eight LCDs are spread across the east/west gallery of the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos, to provide detailed information on the various cores, and two digital frames highlight each of the two sets of coins that are presented.
The group of five scientific commissioners includes Victor S. Gonçalves (pre-history), Amílcar Guerra (proto-history), Catarina Viegas (Roman period), Helena Catarino (Islamic period) and Luís Filipe Oliveira (medieval period).
And what can be seen in this wing of the National Archeology Museum in Lisbon?
For example, the fragment of a cheese plant with five thousand years, found in the prehistoric village of Corte João Marques, in whose holes the laboratory technicians still found traces of milk fat.
Or stelae engraved in Southwest script, whose characters are known to be derived from the Phoenician alphabet, but which researchers have yet to decipher. Or three entangled skeletons, as they were discovered in a Bronze Age grave, found in Vinha do Casão, in Vilamoura.
Or dark wheat and acorn seeds, from the Islamic era, found in the Castle of Salir. Or even a huge whale vertebra, with cut marks, from the same period, discovered in the Quinta do Lago area by Rui Almeida, archaeologist and executive commissioner of the Municipal Museum of Loulé, which could result from an animal captured at sea or that has given to the coast.
Or the oldest official act known in the country (document from the Municipal Archives of Loulé), dated 1384. This is, by the way, for the mayor Vítor Aleixo, the piece he chooses among the 504 in this exhibition. "It is the oldest known act of council in Portugal, a living testimony of local democracy", a "very rich document, which will be there for the whole country to look at", stresses the mayor.
On Monday, two days before the opening of the exhibition, while archaeologists and other technicians from the National Museums of Archeology and Loulé were toiling away in the (almost) final details of the assembly of this seven thousand year journey through the origins of Loulé, the Mayor Vítor Aleixo insisted that this is “perhaps the most important cultural event in the municipality of Loulé in the last 40 or 50 years”.
Photos: Elisabete Rodrigues|Sul Informação
«Loulé. Territories, Memories, Identities»
Location: National Archeology Museum, Jerónimos Monastery, Lisbon
Open Hours: From Tuesday to Sunday, from 10.00 am to 12.00 pm and from 14.00 pm to 18.00 pm
Until December 30, 2018
Entrada: 5 euros; 2,5 euros for students, seniors, large families and family ticket; free on the first Sunday of the month, up to 12 years old and for people with reduced mobility.
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