Católica and Serralves inaugurate “Lourdes Castro | A Vida Como Ela é” exhibition

"Lourdes Castro | Life As It Is", an exhibition which brings together works by Lourdes Castro produced between the 1950s and the 2000s, is the first initiative at the headquarters of the UCP in Lisboa within the scope of the protocol signed between the Serralves Foundation and Universidade Católica Portuguesa, which is part of the group of founders of the aforementioned foundation. It is also the 1st individual exhibition dedicated to a woman artist hosted by the Galeria Fundação Amélia de Mello.

At the inauguration of the exhibition at the headquarters of the Universidade Católica Portuguesa, on May 10, Isabel Capeloa Gil, Rector of UCP stressed that "the university is a space of discomfort, not a space of comfort, contrary to what we often think, and for this project and this vision, the presence of art, the cultivation of art, being challenged by artistic languages, especially contemporary ones, which are more difficult to articulate is particularly relevant."

The Rector took the opportunity to thank the Foundation and its President and celebrated the privilege of being able to "articulate this vision of development of the university and the country with an institution like Serralves" describing it as an institution "that always thinks beyond what we think is its horizon."

Ana Pinho, President of the Serralves Foundation, stated that "it is for us an enormous source of pride to be able to have the Universidade Católica Portuguesa in the body of our founders and with the university to develop even more initiatives", foreseeing a collaboration with the Faculty of Biotechnology. Regarding the exhibition, Ana Pinho explained that "Lourdes de Castro is an artist with a strong connection to Serralves", which has already dedicated 3 individual exhibitions, 12 collective exhibitions and 28 out of doors exhibitions to her.

She ended by thanking UCP and its Rector, congratulating "the incredible path, particularly in recent years, of an absolutely extraordinary and incomparable dynamic."

Paulo Pinto, director of the Galeria Fundação Amélia de Mello which hosts the exhibition until 9 October 2022, pointed out that since its inauguration in 2018, the Gallery has sought to "fulfil the mission entrusted to it, to enrich the fully educational activity by integrating with theology, with philosophy, with the sciences, culture, the arts, and the aesthetic experience as essential complements of the integral formation of the human person."

Afterwards, the guests were given a guided tour by Isabel Braga, curator and responsible for the exhibition, who presented Lourdes Castro as an artist of Madeiran origin with "the will to discover new languages, new realities, outside the "small" Portugal" of her time.