Renovation works at the Casa Serralves now being finalised to accommodate Miró for 25 years

Rui Moreira and António Costa visited the space that will accommodate the artwork of Catalan Surrealist painter Juan Miró, from this year on.

The Miró Collection, which will stay in Porto for more than two decades is about to settle at Casa de Serralves as the renovation works are being finalised. The Foundation will thus be the "new cultural center of the city" as announced by Mayor of Porto, Rui Moreira, in September 2016, during the inauguration of the exhibition “Joan Miró: Materiality and Metamorphosis.”

The space was subject to some improvement works of infrastructure, a task that was the responsibility of the architect Alvaro Siza Vieira, in-charge of the project of the Foundation.

The Miró Collection, which is Portuguese Government property, will now be on display at the Casa de Serralves, due to the protocols that have been signed by the Portuguese Government, the Municipality and the Serralves Foundation. "This decision safeguards the public and national interests", said Rui Moreira during the Press conference held at Porto City Hall on 24 October 2018, when the protocols were signed.

Fast forward to the present, António Costa, the Prime Minister of Portugal, who played an important role in this process, was given a guided tour by the Mayor of Porto to the facilities.

It is up to the City Hall to make sure the collection is secured, valued and disseminated. This will be ensured by the Serralves Foundation, via a second protocol, where the Foundation will certify that "the collection is seen". The Municipality of Porto will pay, per year, 100 thousand euros to keep the Collection cared for and supported the building renovation works in the amount of one million euros. The Serralves Foundation ensures guardianship of the Miró Collection and it is obliged, as a bona-fide depositary, to promote the collection, safeguarding its state of conservation.

Works are being finalised and the Casa de Serralves will display the Miró Collection this year, as expected. The Collection includes eighty-five paintings, drawings, sculptures, collages and tapestries of the collection covering six decades (1924-1981) of artistic activity.

The Miró collection, transferred to Porto by the Portuguese Government, for a 25 year period, was officially designated public interest collection in 27 July 2020, in the National Official Journal, in a decree signed by the Assistant Secretary of State for Cultural Heritage, Ângela Ferreira.

"The 85 paintings by Joan Miró that are now classified are very heterogeneous and refer to six decades of artistic production, by using different materials, techniques, tools, including, among others, oils, watercolours and drawings, collages and sculptural works, and represent a vast and diverse sample of the work by the Catalan artist", reads the classification decree.

The Miró collection had to be screened by the Museum, Restoration and Conservation Section of the Immaterial Heritage of the National Cultural Council and by the previous procedures under the Administrative Procedure Code to be classified as public cultural interest.

The visual thinking of Miró, the way he works with sensations ranging from the tactile and optical and the development processes of his works can be seen in detail at Casa de Serralves, soon.