FLAD Collection: The Dialogues - New cycle of conversations invites artists from FLAD's collection

FLAD launches the cycle of conversations ‘FLAD Collection: The Dialogues’, an initiative that aims to make known the career of artists present in FLAD’s contemporary art collection. The first session takes place on September 24, starting at 6:30 pm, in the FLAD auditorium, in Lisbon, and brings together, in a conversation moderated by Miguel von Hafe Pérez, curator of FLAD, the artist Rui Sanches and curator Sara Antónia Matos.

This cycle of conversations proposes a reflection on the Foundation’s artistic heritage, based on works that are part of FLAD’s contemporary art collection, one of the most relevant in the country. The invited artists will be challenged to reflect on the importance of the works in the context in which they were created and on the meaning of their work and its relevance in the Portuguese art scene.

The conversations will be moderated by Miguel von Hafe Pérez, curator of the FLAD collection, and will feature the participation of critics, historians, curators or other personalities close to the artists, contributing to broaden the interpretation of the works and create new ways of understanding them.

“It is, in essence, about creating an oral memory that is so lacking in the panorama of contemporary Portuguese art. The relevance of a collection that is not physically available at all times is also underlined, thus becoming more alive and active”, says Miguel von Hafe Pérez.

The first edition of this cycle will feature the participation of Rui Sanches, a leading name in Portuguese sculpture and who, in addition, also played a significant role in the construction of FLAD’s collection as an advisor, and Sara Antónia Matos, curator, essayist and director of the Júlio Pomar Atelier-Museum and EGEAC’s Municipal Galleries. This conversation will take place on September 24, at 6:30 pm, in the FLAD auditorium, in Lisbon.

With this new initiative, FLAD continues its commitment to valuing Portuguese contemporary art, creating a meeting space between artists, specialists and the public, where the works in the collection serve as a starting point for conversations that help to better understand the recent history of art in Portugal.

Register here.

—-

Rui Sanches – biographical note

Rui Sanches was born in Lisbon in 1954.

He studied at Ar.Co – Centre for Art and Visual Communication, received a BA from Goldsmiths’ College, London (1980), an MFA from Yale University, New Haven (1982) and a PhD from the University of Algarve (2017). In 1984 he exhibited his work for the first time at the SNBA Modern Art Gallery and at the Diferença Gallery, in Lisbon. Since then he has held more than forty solo exhibitions. He has participated in dozens of group exhibitions, in Portugal and abroad. His work is represented in the main Portuguese public collections and in several foreign collections, namely: Gulbenkian Museum; Serralves Museum; Museum Van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerp; Extremeño and Iberoamerican Museum of Contemporary Art, Badajoz; EDP Foundation; Luso-American Development Foundation; Caixa Geral de Depósitos Collection; Mudas – Museum of Contemporary Art of Madeira; Leal Rios Foundation; Berardo Collection and António Cachola Collection. He has several works in public spaces, namely the “Colonnade” in the Assembly of the Republic, the Monument to Maria José Nogueira Pinto in Lisbon, and sculptures in Santo Tirso, Alcobendas (Spain), São Pedro do Sul and the University of Algarve. In 2008 he was awarded the AICA-Ministry of Culture Award.

www.ruisanches.com

Sara Antónia Matos – biographical note

Sara Antónia Matos (1978) is Director of the Júlio Pomar Atelier-Museum and of the Municipal Galleries of EGEAC. In this same entity, she is the techno-scientific coordinator of the BAC- Bank of Contemporary Art – Maria da Graça Carmona e Costa (project under the management of EGEAC).

She has a degree in Sculpture from the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Lisbon, a Master’s degree in Curatorial Studies and a PhD with the thesis “From Sculpture to Spatiality” at the same University, where she is currently a professor. She teaches the subject of Curatorial Studies in the Master’s Degree in Curatorship and Art Criticism – Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Lisbon.

In the field of teaching, between 2011 and 2013, she was coordinator and professor of the Department of Sculpture of Arco.

Curator since 2006, the following exhibitions stand out: at MAAT, CCB, Galeria Municipal do Porto, Millennium bcp, CAM- Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Carmona e Costa Foundation, etc.

She regularly publishes essays on art, in catalogues and magazines of the speciality and is coordinator of the Cadernos collection of the Atelier-Museu Júlio Pomar. She is a member of AICA/SP – International Association of Art Critics.

Miguel von Hafe Pérez

The moderation of the conversations of the cycle will be in charge of Miguel von Hafe Pérez, curator of the FLAD Contemporary Art Collection since 2025. With a degree in Art History from the University of Porto, he has developed a career of more than three decades in curatorship and artistic programming, with passages through reference institutions in Portugal and abroad. He was coordinator of the area of Fine Arts, Architecture and the City of Porto 2001, directed the Galician Center for Contemporary Art (CGAC), in Santiago de Compostela, and curated exhibitions at institutions such as the Serralves Museum, MAAT, the Berardo Collection Museum and the Gulbenkian Foundation, in Paris. He is currently also curator of the Ilídio Pinho Foundation and programmer of the CAV, in Coimbra.