The future Espaço Gamboa, which aims to honor this artist born in Lagoa, will occupy the left wing of the Convento de S. José Cultural Center and involve the construction of a new entrance hall and a new body adjacent to the building, to install educational services.
The architectural and museological-museographic projects of Espaço Gamboa were presented in a public session on May 24th, the day on which the master Manuel Gamboa would complete 96 years of life.
In statements to the Sul Informação, the mayor of Lagoa, the entity that promotes this new museological space in the city, designed to remember the life and work of the artist, revealed that «throughout the current year of 2021, we will define the entire architectural, museological and museographic project of Espaço Gamboa, so that, in 2022, a competition for the work will be launched».
Luís Encarnação added that "the final investment will depend on the definitive projects, which are still being worked on, and then on the specialty projects", adding that the intervention will be "candidated for community funds".
During the presentation, which took place at the Convento de S. José itself, the architect Rogério Amoeda, responsible for the project, recalled that what will appear in a part of the former Carmelite convent will be «an extremely identitary museum space».
The proposed project intends to “conserve the building”, but also “to intervene in it so that, in the future, our intervention can be worked”. On the other hand, the intervention will be “contemporary”. For this, it is foreseen, for example, the remodeling of the entire entrance hall of the Convento de S. José, but also the demolition of one of the current parts of the building, a warehouse area built in the 80s during «improvement works ", which, according to the architect, "collided with the original". This body will be demolished, to «introduce a new volume, creating a contemporary space».
But, in addition to preserving the old building and introducing this contemporary element, the project is also based on the concept of «community»: «Gamboa was a person who belongs to this community, so the space must be open to everyone» .
Rogério Amoeda added that the new body to be created is intended to house the Educational Space, which "will be autonomous in terms of access, to facilitate school visits."
In this new body, which will be a kind of brand image of the future Espaço Gamboa, as well as in the reformulation of the atrium, «the material of choice is steel», which will be used «in the structure», but also as «skin and coating for the new building».
The museological project was presented by Angelica Richter, from specialized company FCo. fullservice company, who is responsible, for example, for the recent multimedia project (interactive furniture, educational content and games) at the Machado de Castro National Museum, in Coimbra.
«A place will always be a place, even with the best projects in the world, if it is not given a soul», and that will be what «the visitor will feel in every room» of the future Espaço Gamboa, promised Angelica Richter.
Therefore, he guaranteed, the space will also be «a cultural space in the image of the nature of Gamboa itself, cosmopolitan, creative, with plenty of space for the visitors' own interests and inclinations». There will be a big bet on multimedia content and virtual reality.
For this, the museum space will present three moments of Manuel Gamboa's life: his youth in Lagoa and then in Lisbon), his life in Germany, especially in Hamburg, his return to Lagoa.
There will be an area dedicated to interaction, where visitors can discover more about the artist's life and work, and an «exhibition in the classical sense» area to display the pieces (paintings, sculptures, drawings, etc.) that are in the collection of the Lagoa City Council. There will also be, as is already known, the Educational Space.
As highlighted by the mayor Luís Encarnação in his statements to the Sul Informação, the creation of Espaço Gamboa will be «the realization of an ancient yearning», thus contributing to «the recognition of an unavoidable figure from Lagoa» and creating «a dignified space to welcome the memory and work» of the plastic artist.
Manuel Gamboa, who died without having seen his dream of having, in his homeland, a space open to the public to make his work known, was remembered in the public presentation of the project, either through videos or through testimonies in person, by friends, the mayor and former mayors, and also by Joaquim Saial, researcher who, in 1998, launched the book «Manuel Gamboa, a arte por vida».
In the future, the objective is not only to expose and contextualize the works that make up the estate of the Câmara de Lagoa, but to make known «works that make up private collections that are not public knowledge».
Mayor Luís Encarnação also announced that the future Gamboa Space includes the creation of "a polynucleated network on a territorial scale, which will be central to the future Casa da Cidadania, which will also be the target of a public presentation of the respective architectural and museological projects" , in the next 24th and 25th of June.
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