Out of the Shadows: Portugal from Revolution to the Present Day by Neill Lochery

Author:Neill Lochery [Lochery, Neill]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
ISBN: 9781472934215
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2017-02-22T22:00:00+00:00

17

Under the Bridge

When it comes to hosting international events, the Portuguese do not do anything by halves. So in January 1988, the government took the decision to build the Cultural Centre of Belém to act as the host venue for the Portuguese Presidency of the European Community, which started on 1 January 1992. The building faced the River Tagus and looked towards the venue that had formerly been the flagship of highlighting the achievements of Salazar and the Estado Novo – the Portuguese and the World Exhibition of 1940.

Standing out in the gardens at the front of the somewhat austere façade of the Cultural Centre building, it is possible to see examples of Portugal’s historical achievements: the monument to the discoverers, a reminder of the Golden Age of Portuguese history, and the 25 April Bridge (formerly the Salazar Bridge). The bridge is a modern wonder in all its red metallic glory, spanning the river and linking the old world to the new, marking the western edge of mainland Europe. A more evocative location could not have been chosen by the planners, who wanted to reshape Belém’s image as a leftover decaying relic from the 1940 exhibition, which was fast fading into nostalgic irrelevance.

Following the Presidency, one of the buildings was designated to become the nation’s leading venue for world-class modern art, putting the city of Lisbon well and truly on the international art circuit. Other Iberian cities remained far ahead of Lisbon in this respect. Madrid, Barcelona, and later Bilbao with its Frank Gehry-designed Guggenheim Museum, all hosted and housed important international collections that helped attract tourists from all around the world.

The ambitious aims in Lisbon were to try to match these cities with the creation of a state-of-the-art building that would be able to house both a permanent collection and temporary exhibitions. It all appeared to bode well for those who had a vision of the potential for the Iberian city of light to become an important centre for international art. Before all of this could be developed (or not), Portugal had to get through its Presidency of the European Community and show the potential of the city, and the country, to a slightly sceptical outside world.

Naturally, the Portuguese Presidency of the Community dominated everything in the government’s agenda from January to June 1992. Both the government and the other member states of the Community approached the Portuguese Presidency, as the British said: ‘with great trepidation and, in private, many had misgivings about their [Portugal’s] ability to cope’.1 The British went on to pay tribute to Portugal’s efforts:

But they did cope, and well. Some of their success may have been due to the advice and training given to key officials by their partners including ourselves. Some was due to the support of the Council Secretariat and the Commission. But much was also due to the hard work and dedication of officials and Ministers together with a willingness to spend the money first and find out where it would come from afterwards.

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