20 Jul 2009

Serralves 2009 - The Collection

'Serralves 2009 - The Collection' is the most important exhibition of the year in Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art and celebrates the 10th anniversary of the Museum. It is divided into two parts. The first can be seen until 27th September and the other opens in October. It is based upon the Serralves Foundation's Collection and will provide an overview of the acquisitions of the past 10 years. Occupying the entire Museum, this show will present key works representing the Collection's historical nucleus - the 1960s and 1970s - together with constellations of works by specific artists from the 1980s to the present. This exhibition joins approximatively 200 works from the different periods of the Collection's history. Their installations will not be chronological or by movements, but will expose surprising junctions of works from different times, realized in different media. The exhibition of the Serralves Collection is a decisive moment in the young history of Museu Serralves – looking back at ten years of collecting and looking forward at the next ten years. This is one of the most important missions of Museu Serralves to build a collection of contemporary art which safeguards and makes accessible to the public exemplary works of the most recent period of artistic creation. From the beginning on the Serralves Collection aimed at an international context: works by Portuguese artists share the focus of attention with works by artists from many different countries and cultures. In recent years Serralves has shifted the focus of its collection from the period around 1968 towards the 90s and even more recent years. It has been a conscious decision not to make an unproportionate effort to 'fill' certain gaps that are a consequence of the initial collection policy. During the past several years Serralves has been able to acquire – often in relation to exhibitions shown at the Museum – a number of extraordinary works by leading artists of our time. Several of these works are quite large: rather installations than paintings or sculptures in the traditional sense.