With a career of more than three decades in the national and international art scene, Miguel von Hafe Pérez is the new Curator of the contemporary art collection of the Luso-American Development Foundation. “Openness to new media and attention to emerging artists are fundamental premises for future work that is intended to be differentiating and prospective”, he says.

Miguel von Hafe Pérez, born in Porto and graduated in Art History from the Faculty of Arts of the University of Porto, is the new curator of the FLAD Collection. His career began at the Serralves Foundation, between 1988 and 1995, where he coordinated the Educational Service and was assistant to the artistic director. Her performance was especially remarkable in the European Capital of Culture – Porto 2001, coordinating the area of Fine Arts, Architecture and City. The following year, she curated the Portuguese representation at the 25th Bienal de São Paulo and was part of the curatorial board of the Centre d’Art Santa Mónica, in Barcelona, where she developed projects with Portuguese and international artists.

Between 2009 and 2015, he directed the Galician Center for Contemporary Art (CGAC), in Santiago de Compostela, consolidating his international prestige with a program that highlighted names such as Gilberto Zorio, Anna Maria Maiolino, Jeff Wall and Esther Ferrer, among many others.

In addition to curating, he was responsible for the anamnese project, an online and editorial archive on Portuguese contemporary art, and served as an advisor to the Colección Fundación Arco, in Madrid. More recently, he has curated exhibitions at leading institutions such as the Serralves Museum, MAAT, the Berardo Collection Museum and the Fondation Gulbenkian, Paris. He is currently curator of the collection of the Ilídio Pinho Foundation and programmer of the CAV in Coimbra.

About this new stage, Miguel von Hafe Pérez says: “it was with great pride and a sense of responsibility that I accepted the invitation to take on the position of curator of FLAD’s Collection of Portuguese Contemporary Art”.

Acknowledging the pioneering role of the collection, which began in 1986, he underlines its historical relevance: “The collection came to gain a unique position for the excellence of its choices and for the way it consolidated a central axis erected from design that intensified its individuality.”

With a careful look at the past and what is to come, he highlights the guiding principles of this new challenge: “The continued recovery of authors and works that demonstrate the ability to launch new perspectives and questions on the history of Portuguese art from the sixties of the last century, the openness to new media and the attention to emerging artists are fundamental premises for a future work that is intended to be differentiating and prospective.”

With this appointment, FLAD reinforces its role as an active agent in the enhancement and promotion of Portuguese contemporary art, entrusting Miguel von Hafe Pérez with the responsibility of continuing one of the most significant contemporary art collections in the country.