The impact of 25 April on the arts and the field of energy from the Palaeolithic to industrialization are the themes of two of the four exhibitions opening on Wednesday at the Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology in Lisbon.
“Hoje soube-me a pouco – Introversões e utopias artísticas no pós-25 de Abril” is the title of the group exhibition that brings together artists and works that marked the period after the founding of democracy in Portugal, evoking the “spirit” of this historic milestone, said the museum’s director, João Pinharanda.
During a visit to the four new exhibitions for journalists, João Pinharanda and the deputy director, Sérgio Mah, stressed the importance of the group show, which brings together works by more than 40 artists from various generations to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Carnation Revolution.
“The selection of works reveals the effects of the revolution on artistic creation. It led to an expansion of the imaginary and the emergence of new artists, many women asserting themselves in this area,” stressed Sérgio Mah during the visit, pointing out that the authors represented were those who had already started their careers before April 25, many in exile, and those who emerged in the post-revolutionary period.
Gabriel Abrantes, Helena Almeida, Ana Hatherly, Leonor Antunes, Eduardo Batarda, Maria Beatriz, Sara Bichão, Inês Botelho, Joaquim Bravo, Carlos Bunga, Fernando Calhau, Alberto Carneiro, Pedro Casqueiro, Lourdes Castro, Rosa Carvalho, Rui Chafes, António Dacosta, Armanda Duarte, José Escada, Carla Filipe, Horácio Frutuoso, Ana Jotta and Álvaro Lapa are some of the artists represented, with works covering painting, photography, drawing, sculpture, video and installation.
The title quotes a line from a famous song by musician Sérgio Godinho, “Com um brilhozinho nos olhos” (1981), which takes the visitor in “multiple directions”, according to the curators, “transferring the expression of unfulfilled desire from the personal to the collective sphere, but then returning to the individual aspect of creation”.
The exhibition at Central Tejo features works from the EDP Foundation’s collection as well as from private collectors and institutions such as the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, the PLMJ Foundation and the Luso-American Development Foundation.
The works reveal the reflection of times of political and social change that gave rise to particular artistic paths “and autonomous in relation to the collective utopias opened up by the revolution”, in which the artists “revealed narcissistic drives, restlessness, emotions, personal fantasies, and also new ways of experimenting with materials and breaking with limits”, namely through humor.
Alongside this exhibition, the historic space of the old power station was used to present “Energias. Perpetual movement: The National Archaeological Museum visits the MAAT”, an unprecedented partnership that is part of the program celebrating the 130th anniversary of the MNA.
At a time when the museum is closed as part of its refurbishment under the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), the director of the MNA, António Carvalho, was pleased that the initiative was well received, resulting in the exhibition – between the Boiler Room and the Ashtrays Room – of a dialogue involving more than 150 pieces from the museum and the EDP Foundation’s Energy Heritage Collection.
The route displays objects invented by mankind, from prehistoric times to the industrial period, in an attempt to master natural sources of energy such as the sun, water, wind and fire to meet their survival needs.
Among the pieces in the MNA’s collection are four panels from the Mosaic of Ulysses from Santa Vitória do Ameixial, alluding to the winds and the seasons, presented publicly for the first time after several restoration works at the National Museum of Conímbriga, according to curators João Pimenta and Patrícia Batista.
Other specimens include spearheads, cutting stones, a sundial dating from 1775 – a complex scientific tool that was used for geography and gnomonics classes at the then Real Casa Pia in Lisbon – while from the EDP Foundation’s collection, curators Rosa Goy and Ivone Maio highlighted the valve key, a working tool used at the Tejo Power Station between 1908 and 1972, and a sophisticated technological mechanism known as a submarine, which allows two electrical cables to be connected and passed underground.
Speaking to the Lusa news agency, António Carvalho stressed that although the MNA is closed for renovations, “it is still open for various initiatives out of doors”, and that this one, in particular, aims to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the April 25 revolution.
Curated by Sérgio Mah, the exhibition “Três Moscas, 2012-2024” (Three Flies, 2012-2024) by André Maranha, Francisco Tropa, Jorge Queiroz and Pedro Morais also opens, a work conceived by four artists who “have long shared personal and creative complicities”.
The project encompasses a collective installation that includes sculptures, paintings, motors, objects, mirrors, light, water and performative actions, thought of as a device of events, or theater in miniature, in a construction strongly inspired by “Impressions d’Afrique”, by French writer Raymond Roussel (1877-1933), a novel published in 1910 that influenced the history of art.
In addition to the installation, the project includes the altarpiece of the Bonecos de Santo Aleixo, “a relic of a popular puppet theater from Alentejo”, which uses “figures with identical faces and wide-open eyes, animated in a rudimentary way by a stick fixed to their heads, which embody the figures necessary for the representation of texts from oral tradition inspired by biblical narratives, where comic improvisations and burlesque asides are used to establish a direct and duplicitous relationship with the audience, based on laughter and catharsis,” according to the curators.
Related to the activity of the Tejo Power Station, MAAT also presents “Luz em toda a parte II: A primeira Central Tejo”, built on the embankment in front of Rua da Praia da Junqueira by Companhias Reunidas Gás e Eletricidade (CRGE) to meet the growing demand for electricity in the city of Lisbon.
The station was scheduled to operate for six years (1908-1914), but the Great War ended up extending its operation until 1921.
