THREE. The EDP Foundation Collections at ARCOlisboa
Between art, document and object, THREE. The EDP Foundation collections at ARCOlisboa offer a single frame of reference where different modes of producing, communicating and experiencing knowledge intersect. The artistic dimension, the documentary record and the technical materiality engage with one another, revealing connections between the creative gesture, historical memory and technological development — and raising questions about work, identity, everyday life and the place of modernity.
The starting point was a curatorial challenge in the shape of a three-way collaboration between Ivone Maio, Margarida Almeida Chantre and Rosa Goy: to select ten works from the Art Collection capable of establishing a dialogue with the documents and objects from the other two collections. The result is a collection in dialogue with works by Adriana Proganó, Edgar Martins, Helena Almeida, Joana Bastos, João Ferro Martins, LealVeileby, Luís Dourdil, Miguel Palma, Rodrigo Oliveira, and Vhils — ten contemporary Portuguese artists confronted with posters, manuals, publications, photographs, blueprints, tools, equipment and household appliances that document the country’s electricity sector between 1920 and 1970.
The three collections that intersect here have distinct histories and natures. The EDP Foundation’s Art Collection was started in 2000. It comprises 2540 works by more than 345 artists, with a chronological starting point in the 1960s. The EDP Foundation’s Documentation Centre, the most important national archive on the history of electricity in Portugal, comprises more than 193 thousand documents, from the end of the 19th century to the present day, with the oldest documents dating back to 1856.
The EDP Foundation Energy Heritage Collection, specialised in the national energy sector, is made up of approximately 3500 pieces inventoried - such as measuring devices and meters, household appliances, illumination and lab equipment - and also dates back to the 19th century.
This exhibition marks both the tenth anniversary of MAAT – Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology in Lisbon and the tenth anniversary of the partnership between the EDP Foundation and ARCO – International Contemporary Art Fair, which the EDP Foundation has sponsored since its very first edition in Lisbon.
Alongside the three collections, Electra magazine will also be present at Arts Libris, the fair’s publishing space.