The artistic director of the Berardo Collection Museum in Lisbon, Rita Lougares, considers that receiving the Ellipse Collection in that space “is a great asset for the museum and for the country”, because they “complement” each other in the representation of Art History .
The Berardo Collection Museum, located in the Cultural Center of Belém (CCB), celebrates its 15th anniversary this Saturday, with more than 10 million visitors, 123 temporary exhibitions and some controversies.
In an interview with the Lusa agency about the balance of the 15 years of the museum, the activities of this year and the perspectives of a future in transition, Rita Lougares made an evaluation of the situation that the institution that houses a private collection is experiencing, which has been in state custody since 2019.
“Bringing together the different collections is an idea that has been talked about for a few years. The Ellipse Collection, from a value point of view, is not comparable to the Berardo Collection, which is much more valuable, [mas] from an artistic point of view, the two complement each other”, considers the art historian and curator.
While the Berardo Collection “is very strong until the end of the 20th century”, Ellipse covers the first decade of the 21st century.
“The two, together, are a great asset for a future museum of modern and contemporary art, and for the country,” said Lusa Rita Lougares, who has followed the Berardo collection since the 1990s and has been director of the museum since 2017.
The merger of the two collections was announced in May by the Minister of Culture, Pedro Adão e Silva, at the same time that he revealed the termination of the contract between both parties, valid until the end of December, opting for non-renewal.
Pedro Adão e Silva also announced that the Fundação de Arte Moderna e Arte Contemporânea —Berardo Collection— established for the creation of the museum, and chaired by José Berardo, will be extinguished, and a process will be opened for the creation of a museum of contemporary art to gather various collections, namely the Ellipse Collection.
The Ellipse Collection, started in 2004 by businessman João Rendeiro (1952-2022), with nearly 800 works of art, was seized after the bankruptcy of Banco Privado Português (BPP), and was recently evaluated by a commission appointed by the Ministry of Culture, being analyzed for its acquisition by the State.
Among the works in the collection are represented Portuguese and foreign artists such as Pedro Cabrita Reis, David Claerbout, Nick Oberthaler, Rodney Graham, João Onofre, Steven Shearer, Julião Sarmento, Dash Snow, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Tatjana Doll, Sophie Calle, Glenn Ligon, Mona Hatoum, Catherine Opie, Gonzalo Puch, Wolfgang Tillmans, Júlia Ventura, Kiluanji Kia Henda, José Iraola and the duo João Maria Gusmão and Pedro Paiva.
Inaugurated on June 25, 2007, the Berardo Collection Museum was created as a result of an agreement signed in 2006 for the free transfer to the State, for ten years, of a collection with 862 works of art by collector and businessman José Berardo, valued, at the same time, at 316 million euros by the international auctioneer Christie’s.
In 2016, after the 10-year agreement with the State to create the Berardo Collection Museum concluded, an addendum was signed between the parties to extend it for another six years, with the possibility of automatic renewal from 2022, if it is not reported by any of the parties in the six months prior to the end of the protocol.
Rita Lougares, who joined the CCB as curator in 1993 when the exhibition center opened, has followed the Berardo collection since it was deposited in 1997, specifically during a major exhibition in 2000.
The collection brings together the artistic evolution of the Western world during the 20th century and includes, among other works, by renowned foreign artists such as Jean Dubuffet, Joan Miró, Yves Klein, Piet Mondrian, Duchamp, Chagall, Picasso and Andy Warhol, and Portuguese people such as Rui Chafes, Fernanda Fragateiro and Julião Sarmento.
The Government, through the Ministry of Culture, chose to denounce the agreement, in a context that has a case in the courts of three banks against the collector Berardo, for debts amounting to almost one billion euros.
The Minister of Culture also announced that, when the courts make a final decision on the ownership of the works in the Berardo Collection, the State will negotiate the terms of a new agreement.
After the departure of the art historian and curator Pedro Lapa, successor to the museum’s first director, Jean-François Chougnet, it fell to Rita Lougares to be invited by Berardo to take on the artistic direction.
Since 2007, “the national public has the opportunity to have here, permanently, a fundamental collection for the understanding of all modernism and the History of Art of the 20th century,” the curator told Lusa.
The evaluation of the 15 years of the museum is, according to the director, “very positive”, because “the collection is fantastic” and the “response from visitors is excellent”.
He recalled the 123 temporary exhibitions held over 15 years, “which came to complement and enrich the work that was done on the collection” Berardo.
Asked by Lusa about how the exhibition season at the Berardo Museum is being prepared for 2023, Rita Lougares replied: “I have several interesting proposals on the table, but everything is on ‘stand-by’. I didn’t commit to people, because the loan contract might not be renewed” this year.
“Nothing is closed,” he said, about the temporary exhibitions planned for next year, given the current situation.
“I suppose that the CCB will manage this space”, added the curator, recalling that, “the day after the announcement by the Minister of Culture [Pedro Adão e Silva, que iria denunciar o protocolo assinado entre o Estado e o colecionador José Berardo, com efeitos a 01 de janeiro de 2023]the president of the CCB [Elísio Summavíelle] He assured that he had all the people, and that the entrance will be negotiated” to the cultural center.
Rita Lougares said the team’s employment situation was a “concern,” “but the CCB president spoke to everyone in a friendly manner.” On the future of the museum’s management, however, the director indicated: “They haven’t told me anything yet. Everything is very recent.
Regarding the team of 26 people, he says: “It is a small team, but very professional, that has given everything. We are talking about a museum with nine thousand square meters, and it has been a great effort in the work of permanent exhibition, constantly rectified and remodeled”.
The available budget fluctuated over the years, and there were cuts that the museum had to adapt to, specifically in the crisis of 2011, with the government cutting the budgets of several foundations in the country.
However, the tickets -free since 2007- began to be paid from May 2017, when the addendum to the agreement between the State and the Berardo collector came into force, and the Government introduced this new requirement in the contract.
“The value of the tickets has been completely reversed in the museum’s programming,” recalled the director, adding that, although the influx of public has been very high over the years, exceeding twice a million tickets, it suffered an 80% drop during the pandemic
The director of the Berardo Museum also revealed to Lusa that a 900-page catalog dedicated to the collection —currently with more than a thousand works— is being prepared and will be released in October this year, with a selection of the most important pieces, organized chronologically, by movements in the History of Art.
Also for this year, two exhibitions will be inaugurated, within the framework of this season, one by the Portuguese artist Miguel Telles da Gama, entitled “Debaixo da Pele”, for July 6, and another, for the last quarter of the year, by the Brazilian artist Luiz Zerbini. .
To celebrate 15 years of life, the Berardo Museum will open on Saturday, at 4:00 p.m., the exhibition “Dos Pés à Cabeça”, on the representation of the human body in various artistic media, curated by Cristina Gameiro.
Source: Observadora
