“Gone” the films, the posters remained. «Pieces of art» will be exhibited at the Museum of Faro

Posters were collected by Joaquim António Viegas during his youth

Photos: Rúben Bento | Sul Informação

After being used to take the public to some of the most emblematic rooms in the country, 33 cinema posters, from the golden age of French productions, collected by the Farense artist Joaquim António Viegas, will now fill the walls of the Municipal Museum of Faro.

The exhibition, with assets that could be classified as National Treasure, will be inaugurated on July 31, at 18 pm, and will be open until 00, counting, in parallel, with the launch of a catalog of posters and a varied program of activities.

Entitled “1907-1914, the first golden age of French cinema, in the collection of posters by Joaquim António Viegas”, the exhibition will show a set of these copies, from the early days of cinema, and their expansion worldwide, but also the art of its production with works by some of the greatest illustrators of this period.

The exhibition aims to show not only the large collection of posters that are part of the museum's assets, but also to awaken the interest of visitors to the “cinema of origins”.

This is a partnership between the Municipal Museum of Faro and the Center for Research in Arts and Communication (CIAC), at the University of Algarve, which serves as the motto for the launch of a catalog of cinema posters, the result of a study carried out by Adelaide Ginga and Marta Mestre.

 

Exhibition setup - Photo: Rúben Bento | Sul Informação

 

The history of these posters goes back to the beginning of the 1907th century, between 1914 and XNUMX, when Joaquim António Viegas, «scenographer and artist from Farense», went to study at the Faculty of Fine Arts, in Lisbon, and began working, still in his youth, in «some of the most emblematic theaters in Lisbon and Porto», begins by telling Jorge Carrega, exhibition curator and CIAC researcher, in an interview with Sul Informação.

These rooms then begin to receive the animatograph (a device that projects characters or paintings in motion), and to show films with some regularity.

It is at this point in his youth that Joaquim António Viegas begins to collect several posters and keep them.

«He collects, not just for the whim of collecting or for being a movie lover. There is an artistic sensibility here, from the point of view of having been through the Fine Arts», emphasizes Marco Lopes, director of the Municipal Museum of Faro.

 

Photos: Rúben Bento | Sul Informação

 

The exhibition will highlight the main cinematographic genres, such as comedy, thriller and thrillers, biblical film, melodrama and adventure film, showing “not only the beauty and rarity” of some of these posters, but also being a testimony of the presence of these films, important at the time, in Portugal.

The works on display are part of a collection made up of around 300 original copies, 70 of which are French, which is the theme for the exhibition, in a total of 141, which include other Italian, French, Scandinavian and North American posters. but not the only one.

“We focused on French posters for the quality itself. They are interesting from a classical point of view, from what the art of their production represents,” explains Jorge Carrega.

The movie poster, especially the French one, inherited a whole tradition that dates back to the XNUMXth century, from the poster of advertising and theater, and it will assimilate all these forms, thus appearing as an important element for the marketing of films, in their dissemination and sale around the world.

This exhibition will thus allow us to appreciate the work of some of the greatest poster illustrators of this period, namely Cândido Aragonez de Faria, Georges Dolá, Maurice Lalau, Adrien Barrère, Gus Bofa and Louis Malteste.

«This period is very important, as it coincides with the years in which the film industry truly flourished, organized by production companies, by specialized directors, all in an international distribution machine. The film industry that is being formed is one of the reasons why films, produced in France, in a matter of weeks, arrive and are distributed and exhibited in Portugal and other countries», says the exhibition's curator.

And this is one of the factors that contribute to the diversity and to the large number of posters collected by Joaquim António Viegas.

 

Exhibition setup - Photo: Rúben Bento | Sul Informação

 

It was while working at the Municipal Museum of Faro that Jorge Carrega learned of the existence of this collection of posters.

At the time, the entire collection of cinema posters given to the museum was being studied by Adelaide Ginga and Marta Mestre, culminating in a catalog that was unpublished for 16 years and which will see the light of day in the coming weeks.

“This exhibition will also serve as a motto for launching the catalogue”, which is an “object of study of great strength and development on the part of Adelaide Ginga and Marta Mestre and other stakeholders who participated”, he says Marco Lopes.

The catalog was, however, translated into several languages, which «gives even more an international dimension to this collection of posters», being an important instrument in the identification of these works, as there are copies that are similar in some European archives, but there are pieces that are unique.

“There are very few posters that survived when the films themselves failed to do so. If they survived, they are forgotten somewhere and not found. Therefore, all this turns out to be a way of invoking a very important page in the history of cinema», explains Jorge Carrega.

The CIAC researcher says that, for a historian in the field of cinema, "these pieces of art" constitute "a very important testimony to make the history of the seventh art" worldwide, as well as to know which films arrived in our country and through which rooms they passed.

«The research allows us to know that, in fact, there are many of these films, quite famous at the time, that were shown in Faro, in addition to Lisbon and Porto».

As there are few records, «only in the press», of the films shown, «it is often difficult» to know for sure. In the local press, it is possible to identify some. One of them, “Les Miserables”, a 1912 version, “a few weeks after its debut in France, was already here in Faro», reports Jorge Carrega.

 

Photos: Rúben Bento | Sul Informação

 

In parallel to the exhibition, there will also be a cultural program of various activities, subject to the evolution of the pandemic, to take place over the next few months.

However, until the beginning of December, guided visits will be organized for schools that request it and there will also be open classes for university students.

Another of the news that Marco Lopes announced, in his interview with Sul Informação, was that the collection of posters is being appreciated by the Cinemateca for a possible candidacy for the National Treasury, a proposal formulated by Jorge Carrega, at the invitation of the Municipal Museum of Faro.

«We think, due to the technical, plastic and aesthetic characteristics, that the history of cinema and its beginnings, through this extraordinary collection of posters, deserves this classification», emphasizes Marco Lopes.

The collection, which includes the pieces exhibited in this exhibition, was donated in 1990 by Armando Viegas, son of Joaquim António Viegas, to the Municipal Museum of Faro, after the death of the Farense artist.

It also includes academic drawings, from the times of youth, as well as personal elements, which will be the target of a new exhibition, to take place next year, at the Municipal Museum of Faro, in which Joaquim António Viegas will be highlighted as an artist and set designer.

 

Photos: Rúben Bento | Sul Informação

 



Comments

Ads