The text supporting the exhibition Espanto is where José Lima quotes Diogo de Macedo (1889-1959) in the essay Colecionador Civilizado (1945), based on the homonymous article by researcher Adelaide Duarte: “In the great milieus of civilisation, it [the collection] is no longer locked away in the shadow of individualistic fortunes, it has left its private dome, it has become light in the light of all spirits and places”[1]. Adopting the words of the sculptor and art critic, the collector sets the tone for the exhibition project on display at Casa Comum, curated by Ana Anjos Mantua and Fátima Marques Pereira: to share his collection with the broader community and, in this case, with the academic sphere, fostering greater democratic access to culture and contemporary art.

Espanto stems from the collector’s awareness when he purchases a work and attempts to get to know the artist, but also from the constant awe when he still marvels at them, particularly in the many curatorships that have been held from his collection, one of the largest private art holdings in the country, available to the public at Centro de Arte Oliva (São João da Madeira) since 2013, where it has been in long-term storage.

Yet Espanto may also come from the uniqueness of the exhibition project’s precepts: the dialogue between Norlinda and José Lima’s contemporary art pieces and the collection of the Museum of Natural History and Science of the University of Porto (MHNC-UP), consisting of fish, amphibian and reptile collections; entomology; archaeology, ethnography and biological anthropology, and scientific instruments, among others.

Intending to connect or confront the collections, the curators have devised an exhibition design using geometry, colour and symbolism, simultaneously encouraging reflection and experimentation on the History of knowledge, since the dialogue is happening at the Rectory of the University of Porto. The History of collecting and museology is evident throughout the tour – a notable example being the small cabinet of curiosities of the Portuguese-German artist Susanne S. D. Themlitz entitled Marginais e Dissimuladores (Coleção da vida privada dos Parasitas) (1993) alongside an entomological box with beetles and an entomological cabinet drawer with butterflies from different sources (1920 -1970).

As well as displaying pieces of contemporary art, the curators also wanted to stress the current geopolitical, economic, social and cultural issues they raise. This was made all the more striking by combining them with scientific pieces from other eras. Right at the entrance, Eva Davidova’s photograph Untitled (Dani) (2007), the exhibition’s featured image, with a boy with his back surprisingly hanging from the corner of a wall, instils a sense of humour, awe and curiosity about what we’re going to see next.

The first room features the piece Tiroir (1988) by Christian Boltanski, a black and white photograph of a woman, together with glass negatives (twentieth century) with images of skulls from the MHNC-UP collection. Next to it, there is a photograph by José Chambel from the Tchiloli series (1997) of a black man and a glass negative with a similar representation, Soba Chaúto (1903).

The relationship between the lines, colours and transparencies of Death Comes in Silence (Homage to Joaquim Bravo) (1992) by João Paulo Feliciano and Decalques de arte rupestre (1938) is also interesting. The combination of shapes, volumes and representations between the sculptures Sem título (1987) by Miguel Branco, Homem cego que tudo vê (2021) by Fernão Cruz and Máscara funerária from the Greco-Roman period. Not to mention the legacy and imagination of ancient Greece and Rome mirrored in Sem título (Mundo #5) (1998) by Leonel Moura, echoing alongside a plaster replica of Orpheus and Eurydice (nineteenth and twentieth centuries) and a Skyphos and Lekanis from the fourth century B.C. Rounding off the centre of the room with Cabeça de Heraclito e Oroboro (2006/2008) by João Maria Gusmão + Pedro Paiva. Reflecting on how these references and symbologies resonate throughout Western Art History, as André Malraux theorised in The Imaginary Museum (1947), we also see 9 pieces from Monsieur Valadares serie (2022) by Nuno Nunes-Ferreira, reinforcing the possibilities of the archive.

The second room presents A colher na boca [Poesia de Herberto Helder] (2008) by Maria José Oliveira, together with Garfos from 1941, making us smile pleasantly. Equally enjoyable are Sara Bichão’s patterns and textures in O meu sol chora (2016) next to a colourful twentieth-century carpet, topped by a bird trap of the same date. Or Roda Amarela (2015) and Corda (2014) by Musa Paradisiaca, establishing a connection with the nineteenth and twentieth century forms of Braçadeiras e Pulseiras. There is also Postfossil (2023) by Paulo Arraiano, an Expanded osteological arrangement of a common pigeon skeleton (Columba livia) and two coral species that look like two sculptures. We should also emphasise the twofold strangeness and form of Dan Graham’s Model (2011) and the Optical crystallography models for illustrating stereographic projections.

Untitled (1995) by Anish Kapoor and its similarities to Carta da Ilha do Fogo (1929), as well as Sem Tìtulo (Série Sopro Athenas) (2021) by André Cepeda, again recalling the Greco-Roman legacy in contemporary Western culture, are our highlights in the third room. Not least the piece Bird of Passage (Ave Migratória) (2021) by Inês Osório, a wing-shaped shoe sculpture, along with twentieth-century Tamancos e chinelos, recalling José Lima’s profession as an industrialist in the footwear sector. However, Balança analítica de cadeia (c.1930) stands in the centre of the room, bringing balance and unevenness to the space, providing a greater weight to Mauro Cerqueira’s Tudo pode quebrar (2008). An installation with two chairs supporting a wooden ladder, broken glasses on the floor, and on the wall the inscription “Everything around us may break / But you and I will be protected by our love”, implying a certain transience and fragility in contemporaneity.

The exhibition wraps up with a work by Kenny Schachter from 2001, humorously depicting the act of collecting, which reads: I am Too Poor to be a Collector and Too Untalented to be an Artist. Indeed, the exhibition project raises questions about the act of collecting in contemporary times and in Portugal, as well as the many possibilities for exhibiting and promoting a private collection of contemporary art, but also a collection of scientific content, emphasising the cross-disciplinary notions that come with the present day.

Espanto is at Casa Comum of the Rectory of the University of Porto until August 31, 2024.

[1] Duarte, A. (2022). Colecionador Civilizado. In J. Maia, P. P. Pinto, & P. Mendes, Que Horas São Que Horas: Uma Galeria de Histórias (pp. 63-67). Porto: Galeria Municipal do Porto / Ágora – Cultura e Desporto do Porto – E.M. p. 63.