Exhibition
THE PLEASURE OF THE SPIRIT AND OF THE GAZE

Landscape and Voyage in the portuguese Art of the ARQUIPÉLAGO Collection

THE PLEASURE OF THE SPIRIT AND OF THE GAZE – Landscape and Voyage in the portuguese Art of the ARQUIPÉLAGO Collection 

Itinerancy exhibition project

Museu de Santa Maria

Santa Maria Island

25th July – 18th December 2018

ARTISTS | GIL HEITOR CORTESÃO | INÊS BOTELHO | JOÃO PEDRO VALE | JOÃO QUEIROZ | LUÍSA JACINTO | MARIA JOSÉ CAVACO | PEDRO VALDEZ CARDOSO | RUI CALÇADA BASTOS | SANDRA ROCHA

Since its very first moment, the ARQUIPÉLAGO – Centro de Artes Contemporâneas has endeavored to overstep the physical boundaries of the place where it is rooted in, so that it may bring about the mission inscribed in its name: a space for the creation and dissemination of the many expressions of Contemporary Art, made accessible to all the Azorean, citizens of the world, who inhabit these islands.

It was with this in mind that we devised the project for this travelling exhibition that will tour the several islands of the archipelago, bringing culture and contemporary art to its citizens and to all that live or visit the Azores, showing works from the contemporary art collection of the ARQUIPÉLAGO, a collection established by the Regional Government of the Azores.

The show will travel to eight islands of the Azores (all except São Miguel where the Art Center is located), taking advantage of the infrastructures and personnel of the DRAC, its museums and public libraries. The show will travel to all the islands of the Azorean Archipelago, starting in the city of Horta where it will be kindly received by its Public Library and Regional Archive João José da Graça.

Through its department of Museology and Visual Arts, the ARQUIPÉLAGO focuses its action on the management of the ARQUIPÉLAGO Collection and on the preparation of its exhibition projects. In this spirit, this project aims to promote the mobile cultural assets of this Art Center, thus contributing to the sustainable development of the institution’s strategic objectives. The show explores affinities between different contemporary art objects while searching for a definite meaning, which may identify and cohere the collection while associating it to the identity of the Azores. With the themes of Landscape and Voyage has its guiding threads, this exhibition presents artworks by several Portuguese artists.

Considering the distinctiveness of each island’s identity and the differences in size between them, we selected 9 pieces with different scales and particularities to represent contemporary Portuguese artistic production. Coming together under the definite set of coordinates that structure the narrative of the exhibition, these artworks reveal different facets that result from different ways of being and of thinking and making art.

“so different among themselves […] we cannot compare them before we truly experience their diversity. None is more or less beautiful than the other. All are striking, outstanding, and complementary through ‘difference.’[…]  

João de Melo writing about the nine islands.

MELO, João – «O Arco das Ilhas», in Açores. O segredo das Ilhas. Narrativa de Viagem. Lisboa: D. Quixote, 2016, pp.228-229

[Diana Gonçalves dos Santos

Museologia e Artes Visuais  | ARQUIPÉLAGO – Centro de Artes Contemporâneas]

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