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74 x Caldas = Uma ideia clara? Culturgest | Coleção Caixa Geral de Depósitos

Adriana Proganó, Albuquerque Mendes, Ana Vidigal, Ana Vieira, Bartolomeu Cid dos Santos, Bruno Pacheco, Catarina Lopes Vicente, Clara Menéres, Fernando Travassos, Filipa César, Francisco Queirós, Hansi Staël, Hugo Canoilas, João Gabriel, João Paulo Feliciano, Jorge Queiroz, Júlio Pomar, Luís Ferreira da Silva, Paulo Quintas, Pedro Cabrita Reis, Pedro Diniz Reis, Ricardo Jacinto, Von Calhau!, Zé Júlio.

EXHIBITION
NOV 28TH, 2024 – MAR 3RD, 2025 (Free entry)
Centro de Artes das Caldas da Rainha (Museu Leopoldo de Almeida, Atelier-Museu António Duarte, Espaço Concas), Library of ESAD.CR/IPLeiria

OPENING ON NOVEMBER 28TH:
4 pm: Library of ESAD.CR, at Rua Isidoro Inácio Alves de Carvalho, Campus 3, 2500-321 Caldas da Rainha;
5 pm: Centro de Artes: Museu Leopoldo de Almeida, to which follows a visit to Atelier-Museu António Duarte e Espaço Concas at Rua Dr. Ilídio Amado, 2500-217 Caldas da Rainha

VISITS

Mediated visits with or without booking, starting at the ESAD.CR library, every Friday in January and February, at 9am / 11am / 3pm;

Mediated visits by appointment (email gcoe.esad@ipleiria.pt), for school audiences and other groups, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, from January 6th until March 3rd.

Starting from a disturbing multiplication, this exhibition proposes a challenge: can clarity be extracted from a story that insists on unfolding? We named this exhibition suggested by a blank canvas that carries both what it reveals and what remains hidden. Such is the narrative we have sculpted for this city, where artistic creation is fertile in questions – pauses where our certainties rest.

The exhibition proposes a reflection on the identity and memory of individual and collective artistic work produced or presented in Caldas da Rainha, covering 74 years (from 1950 to 2024) of a city that we affirm as an unavoidable center of contemporary artistic production.

Taking as an anchor historical episodes such as Estúdio SECLA (1950–1960), Caldas 77: IV International Art Meetings in Portugal, the Caldas International Sculpture Biennial (1985–1997), the creation of ESTGAD / ESAD.CR (1990), Galeria dos 30 Dias (2000), Jardim da Água (90s to 2000s), Caldas Late Night (1997–2024) or Slow Motion (2000–2003), the exhibition is based on a selection of works from the CGD Collection by artists who have, or had, contact with Caldas da Rainha and which allows us to tell a story of art and artistic events in Portugal from this city’s perspective.

This 74-year crossing of Caldas is a story that is rewritten with the touch of each work. With the CGD Collection as a backbone, we highlight the work of artists whose careers are intertwined with these episodes and the city. Alongside these, three other artists and collectives fundamental to the reading of this story, whose journey began at ESAD.CR and whose work is omitted from the CGD collection, were invited to produce works specifically for the exhibition space.

This journey, which is also a pedagogical exercise crossed by several curricular units (history of contemporary visual arts, cultural programming and production project, artistic and cultural mediation) and classes of different years, forces us to think about the past and the future with the same opening. The process involved visits to exhibitions, recognition of spaces, consultation of collections, visits to reserves, meetings with curators, producers and conservators, historical research, conceptual definition, contact with artists, selection of works, writing texts, exhibition planning, support to creation, assembly dynamics and mediation actions, as well as with a particularly special partnership in content design.

The question that arises at departure does not ask for a solution upon arrival, but embraces the uncertainty of the artistic path yet to be followed, the legacy to be carried forward by those who read it. It is the promise of a story that is still being built, between the lines of each era and in the actions that are to come.

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Collective curation by the year 2 class of Programming and Cultural Production Undergraduate Programme of ESAD.CR (Ana Yse Rocha, Angela Pinciotti, Carlos Cordeiro, Carolina Morais, Francisca Caridade, Inês Dias, João Grilo, Leonor Dias, Leonor Lima, Maria Jesus, Maria Veloso, Matilde Maia, Sara Silva, Roberto Domingues, Violeta Gregório) and Lígia Afonso, Professor at ESAD.CR/IPLeiria and LiDA investigator.

Design and Communication by Joana dos Remédios, Master’s student in Graphic Design at ESAD.CR, and Afonso Nunes, with guidance from António Gomes and João Maio Pinto, ESAD.CR/IPLeiria Professors.

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Joint programming: Culturgest, Município das Caldas da Rainha and Polytechnic University of Leiria.