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Is the museum alive?

THE MUSEUM IS DEAD - it’s a strong statement. Even more so when you nail it to a museum door. 

This slogan, in a photo from 1974, is the i-dent for the current temporary exhibition at Museu Nacional Soares dos Reis. It’s click bait for anyone involved in institutional critique or cultural democracy. In the photo, the slogan has a second part, promising renewal: LONG LIVE A LIVING MUSEUM.

Black and white photo of a demonstration

The exhibition at Museu Nacional Soares dos Reis has a cumbersome title - Centre for Contemporary Art: 50 Years - Making Art Democratic - but it starts in a sprightly style with big, black and white photos beside the long entrance ramp. These were taken on 10th June 1974 when a group of artists, collaborative art groups and other activists commemorated what they claimed was the death of Museu Nacional Soares dos Reis. In the photos we see a crowd (some acting serious and some laughing), hand-painted placards, funeral clothes, banners, a hearse, a priest. One placard reads I WANT TO BE ALLOWED TO HAVE TOAST AND CHOCOLATE MILK IN THE MUSEUM

This public and satirical demonstration led, two years later, to the establishment of the Centre for Contemporary Art (CAC). The CAC was housed within the very institution that had been proclaimed dead, the Museu Nacional Soares dos Reis, and it presented many of the artists whose work wasn't shown in public institutions during the dictatorship. 

Centre for Contemporary Art: 50 Years - Making Art Democratic recreates some of this early dynamism. The two main spaces are brimming with work displayed at the CAC between 1975 and 1981. There are sombre etchings (Julio Pomar), pop art sculpture (Jorge Pinheiro), gently warped geometric compositions (Nadir Afonso), painted photographs (Ana Vieira), sardonic critiques of consumerism (Emilia Nadel), photographic records of land art actions (Alberto Carneiro), as well as textile works, sculpture, erotic art, collage, and film. The wall text from the curators explains that these events were in turn the seed for the Serralves Foundation and its museum of contemporary art in Porto. 

Etching of two fitures with cloaks
Brightly coloured scultpure with smooth forms
A photo of an old building with a curtain in blue paint added to the photo

Towards the end of the exhibition, tucked away in one corner, is a letter dated 15/11/1975. It is from the director of the Museu Nacional Soares dos Reis to the Director-General of Cultural Issues in Lisbon. The letter proposes a collection of contemporary art, in all its forms, and suggests some ways to fund this.

The narrative structure of Centre for Contemporary Art: 50 Years - Making Art Democratic is clear. Part one: a public declaration of the death of the museum. Part two: the establishment of the CAC and the flurry of exhibitions. Part three is beyond the scope of the exhibition but hangs above it nonetheless: what is the Serralves Foundation? 

The Serralves Foundation is one inheritor of the desire to show and share contemporary art. The website says it is a museum of contemporary art, which 'presents exhibitions by leading Portuguese and foreign artists'. The website mentions many prizes and uses the words 'important', 'iconic', 'successful', 'consolidated', 'international ... recognition'. 

The question posed by Centre for Contemporary Art: 50 Years - Making Art Democratic is whether Serralves is an expression of the living museum? Has Serralves sustained and participated in a culture of democratic art in Porto? Can you take your toast and chocolate milk there?

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