The announcement made this Tuesday by the prime minister, in Lisbon, that the Collection Miró will be permanently installed in the city of Porto after the exhibition in Serralves was received as good news for the city. But there are still many questions open, since the site where the works will be installed, up to the costs and responsibility for the maintenance and management of the collection.
António Costa made the statement during the inauguration of the III Summit of the Portuguese Tourism, in the Museum of the East, to mark the world day of that economic sector. And justified the decision of the Government in respect to the collection of 85 works by the important artist Catalan (1893-1983) – who on Friday will finally be shown to the public at the Casa de Serralves – the priority that must be given to the investment in the cultural offer. With the Mirós in the permanent exhibition, the Port will "enhance their attractiveness". In this way, the city will have "a new pole of attraction that will help to consolidate and reinforce that you have had over the years," added the prime minister.
THE PUBLIC sought to know from the Ministry of Culture (MC) which will be, after Serralves, the destination of the collection in the Port, and that relationship will keep the tutelage with her and with the municipality, led by Rui Moreira, in terms of the costs of installation, maintenance and management of this collection, but the office of Luís Filipe Castro Mendes did know only that "it is still premature to talk about this subject".
Rui Moreira declined weave any comment on the decision now announced, reserving their position for the time of the official inauguration in Serralves exhibition Joan Miró: the Materiality and metamorphosis, on the next Friday.
to clarify were, thus, questions concerning the model of operation apply when the collection is exposed on a permanent basis, to a possible revenue-sharing and the possibility of the MC come to decide, still, sell some of the 85 works by the Catalan artist that belonged to the defunct LBW.
For now, the ball seems to be in the field of the president of the Chamber of the Port, which now has to decide where you will host and show the collection in the city, and how. Rui Moreira received with satisfaction, even before the Summer, the news that the Government would like to see the collection installed at the Port, and will have worked already in several possible scenarios for your location.
"If the Portuguese State want to put the Mirós at the Port, we are available and interested in this, and there are plenty of spaces, nor the imagination to find them and adapt to this end," said the mayor in July, responding to the challenge launched by the minister of Culture for the Mirós were welcomed in the city, after an interview to the PUBLIC.
Also on Monday, the mayor received in the Chamber of the Port, a delegation of the Left Bloc, which, to the output of the meeting, expressed its political commitment to ensure that the works of the artist Catalan exposed in permanence in the city. "This is the work we are doing: contributing to the Mirós can stay in the Port and to find a solution in the city for the expose in residence", said the member of parliament José Soeiro, quoted by the Lusa news agency.
Also at that time, Rui Moreira did not want to speak publicly. And the question, that the mayor had already raised in July, on if the MC is thinking about a national museum in the Port or in a municipal museum seems to continue on the table.
Heard by the AUDIENCE, mrs ms Gabriela Canavilhas recalled that the announcement now made by António Costa came only to ratify what the Government had already announced in the Assembly of the Republic. "This announcement comes to reinforce the concern of the Government to establish synergies with the local government and make a fairer distribution of heritage," says the ex-minister of Culture, highlighting also the importance that the Mirós will have for the strengthening of the city of Porto as "a great centre of tourist attraction".
Pro and against the decision
Who now welcomed the Government’s announcement was João Fernandes, deputy director of the National Museum Center of Art reina Sofia in Madrid. "Are extraordinary news for the Port, but also to Portugal and to the heritage of the country. We all will get more rich," said the ex-artistic director of the Serralves Museum.
If, some time ago, John Fernandes thought that the collection "inherited" by the Portuguese State was something "unequal", even if it contained "works very relevant to an artist critical of the TWENTIETH century", the curator and art critic admits to having changed his opinion after hearing the position of Robert Lofthouse Messeri, the commissioner of the exhibition that is to be installed in Serralves. "Messeri said that the collection works as a whole. As I respect a lot your work, I agree that he has reason," says Fernandes. "Now there is work to do and look for the collection to be displayed in good conditions", he adds.
Position well different has Nuno Vassalo Silva, deputy director of the Gulbenkian Museum. "It is a decision regrettable, to surrender to the immediate, and that only demonstrates how in Portugal it is difficult to implement a program of culture, because the temptation of more immediate is to follow the paths more easy and attractive", do you think the ex-director general of Cultural Heritage, named at the time of the Government (PSD/PP.
"If you expose the collection in Serralves is a good idea," and decide that she is after in the city expresses "a vision of a provincial," he adds Vassalo e Silva, to deny that she make "to divert the tourists who go to Barcelona, Madrid or New York city" see the Mirós.
To confirm the installation of the Collection Miró at the Port, all that remains now is to know in that place. In a statement to the PUBLIC in the past week-end, the architect Álvaro Siza – who is responsible for the mounting of the exhibition of the paintings in the House where dwelt the Earl of Vizela – said that "the Mirós look good no matter where". But think as well that the collection stay in the city. "If the Mirós to stay here, for me is better – and for the inhabitants of the Port in general – because then I can go see them with more ease," says the architect.
Various posts
On the site in which the works are to be installed, have been advanced various possibilities. The first of Siza refers to is the Palacete Viscondes de Balsemão, in the Plaza de Carlos Alberto, who, in addition to space, "has the advantage of belonging to the camera," he recalled.
The Cinema Batalha, Casa Tait, the House of the Infant, the spaces of the Santa Casa da Misericórdia, Palacete Pinto Leite, in the meantime already sold by the municipality, and the Slaughter – for which he was also already presented an ambitious transformation project in a multi-service centre for the arts and heritage – are some of the places that were being bandied about for the seat of the collection.
Without opening the game on the solution you prefer, Rui Moreira has always argued that finding the space will not be a problem. And the predictable encounter of the mayor with the prime minister and the minister of Culture on Friday, the opening of the exhibition Joan Miró: the Materiality and metamorphosis, in Serralves, it will certainly create the opportunity to better understand which policy solutions and management will be found to the situation.
also In the Serralves – where the presentation of the Collection, Miró was in some way imposed by the previous minister of Culture, João Soares – seems to be waiting for more information to decide on the future of the Mirós in the Port.
And if the foundation believes that the work of Miró respect of a period of time that is prior to the comprehensiveness of the Collection of Serralves, which starts, "circa 1968", there are those who do not see it as a hindrance. "The projects of the museums are also flexible, but always will have the Serralves answer that question," says John Fernandes. But, more important than solving "the dilemma" of the place – which may very well be "started from scratch", says the critic and curator – is to ensure that the Collection, Miró is "appear in good material conditions of exhibition and interpretation".
Questioned about the place that the Collection Miró may be installed, ms Gabriela Canavilhas think that this is a decision that will fit especially to the Chamber of the Port, but added that it sees as the best solution to meet "a typology of the museum" different from those that exist today in the city.
Ana Ruth Silva and Lucinda Canelas
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