"REGISTO DAS HORAS PERDIDAS | Uma Proto-Coleção" is the new exhibition by the Amélia de Mello Foundation Gallery, which opened on 5 February at the headquarters of the Universidade Católica Portuguesa.

Curated by Sandro Resende and Clara Forte, the exhibition presents an ongoing investigation by P28 - Associação de Desenvolvimento Criativo e Artístico, which explores the theme of the loss of time and the recording of lost hours through the work of Manuel dos Anjos Mendes.

"Art is not only central to our activity of producing knowledge, but it also plays an important strategic role in impacting on the growth of society", emphasised Isabel Capeloa Gil, President of the Universidade Católica Portuguesa, at the opening session of the exhibition. The President also thanked everyone involved in the realisation of the exhibition: "I want to thank you for the possibility of doing this exhibition together, and I also want to thank my colleagues Paulo Pinto, Director of the Gallery, and Rita Paiva and Pona, who created the necessary conditions for us to establish this partnership".

Although the works on display were created chronologically, the exhibition does not follow a set sequence, as this remains unknown. This aspect reflects the passage of time, as curator Clara Forte explains: "They were created between 2016 and 2017. They are not signed because they were never intended as a work. Each one was created in the space of a month or so, drawing every day, recording equations, formulae, annotations, notes every day".

For Sandro Resende, the exhibition represents the culmination of a long journey of research: "I've been at Júlio de Matos Hospital for 25 years, and in those 25 years I've done a lot of research, in various hospitals, in various places, where I've acquired and kept works by people I thought were important. What we're going to see is a first stage, which Clara has been doing with her research over this time".

Paulo Campos Pinto, the Gallery's Director, reinforced the exhibition's alignment with the space's mission and programme, stressing that "we are delighted to welcome this solo exhibition, which is fully in line with the gallery's programme". She also emphasised the social impact of the project, quoting the words of P28: "To give visibility to artists, especially those facing challenges, and to help them overcome barriers. In this case, the walls of the psychiatric hospital".

The exhibition is part of an ongoing effort to promote art and mental health. Rita Paiva e Pona, Advisor to the President and Coordinator of UCP's Social Responsibility Office, emphasised that "this exhibition in fact comes from a line of investment that the university has made in this area of mental health. A proposal to have a community for whom mental health is the meaning of well-being".

"REGISTO DAS HORAS PERDIDAS | Uma Proto-Coleção" will be on show at the Amélia de Mello Foundation Gallery and can be visited until May 2025.

Beatriz Varrecoso, gallery assistant, presents one of her favourite pieces from "Trono de Maria, Lugar de Sabedoria" and invites you to visit the exhibition, on display at the Amélia de Mello Foundation Gallery at the Headquarters of the Universidade Católica until 21st March 2023.

"Trono de Maria, Lugar de Sabedoria" explores the iconographic theme of the Virgin Mary, Sedes Sapientiae, invocation of the University Headquarters chapel and inspiring motto of Catholic universities. The exhibition by the curator Maria Isabel Roque is part of the Cultura@Católica programme and is open to the public, every weekday, from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., at the Campus Palma de Cima of Católica, in Lisbon.

See the video and find out more about the exhibition

Visit the exhibition, for free, until 1 March 2023.

Alternatively, you can book a guided tour via catolicacultura@gmail.com

“¿De qué casa eres? Los niños de Rusia. Episodios de un cotidiano #4” is the title of the new exhibition at the Galeria Fundação Amélia de Mello, at the Católica headquarters in Lisbon. A title that unveils the theme of this display, which functions as a tribute to the artist's mother, but also as a way of understanding the past, through the eyes of the present.

The exhibition focuses on an "individual story of post-memory", according to the curator, Luísa Santos. The story is that of the Spanish children sent to the Soviet Union during the civil war, particularly that of Angela Petra, the artist's mother.

Ana Pérez-Quiroga explains to us that the title of the exhibition comes from the question "¿De qué casa eres?", in reference to the "casas" in which children were divided in the Soviet Union, away from their families, to protect themselves from the constant bombing. "It's a question we can ask ourselves," says the artist, "because it has to do with the culture of individuality; who we actually belong to."

The artist explores the idea of identity, "an identity that also has to do with the accent, and language as a factor of exclusion". These concepts are explored between art and research, as this is also a research project, which is part of Ana Pérez-Quiroga's post-doctorate.

The artist took part in the 2nd edition of the Arts Lab artistic residence, of the Católica Research Centre for Communication and Culture, in October 2022, where it was possible to explore " what it is to investigate through the arts and how art can be a research methodology", explained Luísa Santos at the exhibition's inauguration.

This show is thus part of "a programmatic cycle that the gallery usually dedicates every year to research projects", said Paulo Campos Pinto, Director of the Amélia de Mello Foundation Gallery.

Isabel Capeloa Gil, Universidade Católica Portuguesa's President, highlighted the organization of this initiative "in the scope of the Curatorship Lab, linked to one of the projects we are most enthusiastic about, the Lisbon Consortium".

For Luísa Santos, curator and researcher, "the Lisbon Consortium is a Culture Studies programme, but it is much more than that. It is an understanding of institutions as living organisms, which are in constant mutation". The Culture@Católica initiative, also created under this programme, has already held 10 exhibitions with more than three thousand visitors over its four years of activity.

It is possible to visit the exhibition "¿De qué casa eres? Los niños de Rusia. Episodios de un cotidiano #4" from Monday to Friday, from 2pm to 5pm.