The circulation of the National Collection of Contemporary Art begins in February in Foz Côa

With works by Andy Warhol, Fernão Cruz, Helena Almeida, Hugo Canoilas, Jimmie Durham, João Fonte Santa, Joaquim Rodrigo, Kiluanji Kia Henda, Luís Lázaro Matos, On Kawara, Tiago Alexandre and Tiago Baptista, among other artists, "Dark Safari” will be exhibited in two areas, at the Côa Museum and at the Foz Côa Cultural Center, until July 30.

The Minister of Culture, Pedro Adão e Silva, told the Lusa agency that the "Dark Safari" exhibition, in Foz Côa, kicks off the circulation of CACE throughout the national territory, ensuring that the annual acquisition program fulfills its main function, which is to "make art available to the public, in accordance with the strategy of democratizing access to culture, a government priority".

"The choice of Foz Côa [distrito da Guarda] to host this first major exhibition of the CACE has a particular symbolism: it takes place in a low-density territory, far from the metropolises, and, moreover, it is very enriching to present the work of contemporary artists in a space that puts them in dialogue with the first manifestations of artistic expressions of Man, of what we could today call 'public art'", indicated the government official.

According to the curator of the CACE, Sandra Vieira Jürgens, this exhibition is the result of a partnership between the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage (DGPC), the Côa Parque Foundation and the municipality of Foz Côa, being the first of a new cycle of exhibitions that will be carried out until 2024 by various cultural spaces in the north, center and south of the country.

"This art exhibition aims to make the Collection [de Arte Contemporânea do Estado] known to a wide audience and promote a strategy of promotion and decentralization and territorial deconcentration of contemporary art, based on the enhancement of creation, of artistic production and exhibition and on the establishment of synergies between the various public and private institutions", underlined Sandra Vieira Jürgens in Lusa.

The “Dark Safari” exhibition is curated by artists Sara & André and Manuel João Vieira.

"The vast majority of the pieces that will be exhibited were acquired by the Contemporary Art Acquisition Commission in 2020 and 2021", specifies the curator of the CACE.

The CACE is a public collection, initiated by the State in 1976, through the former Secretary of State for Culture and composed of works produced on various media (painting, drawing, engraving, photography, sculpture, video, installation), mainly but not exclusively Portuguese artists.

Tutored by the Ministry of Culture, through the DGPC, the CACE is deposited and available in institutions such as the Serralves Foundation, the Belém Cultural Center Foundation, the Arpad Szenes – Vieira da Silva Foundation, the Center of Contemporary Art of Coimbra and the Museum of Aveiro, among many others.

For the supervisory authority, the CACE is a structuring element of public contemporary art policy, with the mission of guaranteeing broad access to the national contemporary artistic heritage, also favoring the pursuit of policies that enhance, dignify, preserve and stimulate creation. artistic and the involvement of the artistic community.

Long remained a paralyzed collection, without new acquisitions, and closed in deposit, in most cases, the CACE was reactivated in 2019, as part of a public contemporary art policy that promotes national artistic creation and its development. generally. territory.

On September 16, the government approved the acquisition of 73 works of art by 64 artists, in 2022, worth €800, which had been announced as a ceiling for this year.

Among the works proposed for acquisition are works by Alice dos Reis, Ana Hatherly, Ana Mata, André Guedes, António Caramelo, Carlos Bunga, Catarina Lopes Vicente, Délio Jasse, Edgar Martins, Isabel Cordovil, Jonathan Uliel Saldanha, Leonor Antunes (author of the most expensive piece on the list, “Carpet”, worth 64 euros), Manuela Marques, Maria Lino, Nástio Mosquito, Paulo Catrica and Rita GT, among other artists.

In Foz Côa, the “Dark Safari” exhibition succeeds the “Moral Graces: Maps of the Earth and Time” exhibition, which was the most visited since the existence of the Côa Museum (2010), reaching 37 visitors, “ a record number,” as the president of the Côa Parque Foundation, Aida Carvalho, told Lusa.

FYP // MAG

Portuguese / fine