Dialogue between the collection of the Gulbenkian, the Museum of Portimão and private parties invites to «Lugares Paisagens Viagens»

The exhibition is part of the “Gulbenkian Itinerante” project, which includes five institutions across the country

Painting by Teresa Dias Coelho, belonging to the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation collection

"It's like someone who went to sea and didn't come back." It is based on the painting by Teresa Dias Coelho, from almost Portimão, which belongs to the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation's collection (which can be seen above), that the entire plot of the exhibition “Lugares Paisagens Viagens”, which opens on the 8th of November, was “built. December, at 18 pm, at the Portimão Museum.

José Gameiro, curator of the exhibition, explained to Sul Informação that «it is in an artistic, aesthetic, cultural and geographical discourse that this initiative challenges and invites the discovery of new and unforeseen “Travels”, in which, in a timely and complementary dialogue, works from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation collections are joined by pieces belonging to the collection from the Portimão Museum itself and from local collectors Gita Honwana Welch, George Welch and Álvaro Pires».

At the Museu de Portimão, the exhibition “Lugares Paisagens Viagens”, emerging from the unprecedented intersection between the visual proposals on display and stimulated by the encounter of such different times and spaces, has, however, «unexpected help and the company of a very special and illustrious “guide” born in Portimão – Manuel Teixeira Gomes”, he too “compulsive traveler and a special observer of places, people, territories and landscapes, writer of an intense and epistolary verbal and visual plasticity, frequent visitor of museums, galleries and antique shops , active participant in artistic and literary gatherings, alongside his more institutional performance, as a diplomat and former President of the Portuguese Republic, appears in the performance of this mission».

Thus, in addition to works from Teixeira Gomes' personal collection, which are part of the Museu de Portimão collection, throughout the exhibition there will be «eleven short quotes taken from his books», which will surprise, «establishing connections, rediscovering contact points, expanding possible interpretations, in an unexpected dialogue with the works of the various authors and collections of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, the Museu de Portimão and local collectors, contrasting or bringing together a possible literary sense to the plasticity of the images».

From Calouste Gulbenkian's own collection, one can appreciate, for example, a view of XNUMXth century Marseille, an ancient tapestry or the sculpture “Dromedary of Algeria”, in close dialogue with a Roman bust that belonged to Teixeira Gomes, who, in fact, he chose exile in that North African country and ended up dying there.

From the Gulbenkian contemporary collection, in addition to the aforementioned painting by Teresa Dias Coelho, there will be a strangely imposing piece by Ana Vidigal, marking the center of the exhibition and referring to the epistolary dimension of Manuel Teixeira Gomes.

The Welch couple's collection will feature, for example, a work by Malangatana, while the Álvaro Pires collection will feature pieces by José de Guimarães or Cruzeiro Seixas.

“Porto em Ruínas”, painting from the collection of Manuel Teixeira Gomes, deposited at the Museu de Portimão

José Gameiro also explained that this exhibition is part of the “Gulbenkian Itinerante” project, which takes place “in partnership with five national institutions, in a dynamic model, developed in favor of cultural development”. In addition to the Portimão Museum, the Gulbenkian project includes two more institutions in the south of the country – the Municipal Museum of Tavira and the Sines Arts Center -, as well as two others in the North – the Graça Morais Contemporary Art Center, in Bragança (also in conjunction with Espaço Miguel Torga, in Sabrosa) and the Contemporary Culture Center of Castelo Branco.

«It is a new perspective that the Gulbenkian Foundation is realizing: it does not impose “turnkey” exhibitions on us, as has happened with other similar institutions, in which we just opened the doors and welcomed what they wanted to bring us. In this new project, there is real work in dialogue with each of the five institutions across the country, namely the Museu de Portimão. It's an itinerary, as the Gulbenkian did for decades with its libraries, but in which we too we bring books», added the curator of the Algarve exhibition.

The exhibition, integrated in the City Day Celebrations, can then be visited until March 3rd, on Tuesday, from 14:30 pm to 18:00 pm, and from Wednesday to Sunday, from 10:00 am to 18:00 pm. On Saturdays, the Portimão Museum has free entry between 10:00 and 14:00.

Inaugurated in 2008, the Museum of Portimão received, that year, an honorable mention in the category “Best Portuguese Museum”, by the Portuguese Association of Museology, and, in the following year, by Turismo de Portugal, in the category “New Public Event”.

In 2010, he was internationally distinguished with the “Council of Europe Museum” award and, in 2011, with the “DASA – World of Work 2011” award.

Later that year, he was awarded for the film “À conversa com Manuel Teixeira Gomes”, at the Festival Tour Film Brazil 2011, held in Florianópolis, with the “Arara de Prata – Young Talents”. In 2015, he was once again distinguished by the Portuguese Association of Museology with the “Innovation and Creativity” prize, for the project “Our culture goes out to the street”.

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