Exhibition "THE PORTUGUESE HISTORICAL HERITAGE THROUGHOUT THE WORLD and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation"

On the occasion of the Celebration of the 500 Years of Diplomatic Relations Between Portugal and Thailand, under the patronage of the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs / ‘Instituto Camões’ and with the sponsorship of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, the Embassy of Portugal to Thailand proudly presents the Exhibition: “The Portuguese Historical Heritage throughout the World and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation” at the National Museum, Bangkok, from 10^th May to 2^nd June 2011.The exhibition, meant to be one of the highlights of the “500Y”, proposes a journey through time and throughout the world, showing some of the sites of Portuguese Heritage rehabilitated with the support of the Gulbenkian Foundation. Pictures, models, drawings and charts illustrate the action of the Foundation and guide the visitor through the history of Portuguese maritime expansion including traces of cultural exchanges from the 15^th century onwards, which still exist today.

The restoration and the preservation of the Portuguese historical heritage has been one of the most relevant activities of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. The exhibition shows several examples of its intervention on four continents in countries like Thailand, Malasia, India, Brazil, the Netherlands, Malta, Morocco, Kenya and Iran, with a particular focus on twelve sites in Eastern Africa and Asia.

Some of the projects were carried out in full while others were only object of studies and plans, in any case involving the participation of experts from many different domains (art history, archaeology, architecture, engineering) needed to appropriately rehabilitate civil, military and religious buildings.

The cooperation between the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the Fine Arts Department begun in 1984 when both institutions agreed to start the archaeological excavations at the “Portuguese Bandel”/”Baan Portuket”, in Ayutthaya, bringing to light again the remnants of the Church of Saint Dominic. The result of that common work will also be shown.

This exhibition attempts also to describe the participation of Portugal, from the 15^th century onwards, in a course of powerful interchanges and mixing of cultures one would describe today as a globalisation process. The adaptation of the Portuguese architecture to diverse natural environments and non-European cultural realities gave birth to powerful examples of artistic and architectural creativity such as the ones depicted in this Exhibition.

National Museum, Bangkok

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www.nationalmuseums.finearts.go.th

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