Fernando Gonçalves (1940)
The connection to the world of fine arts began in 1984, and since then it has covered 3 areas: Entrepreneur / Patron, Photographer and Curator.
Entrepreneur / Patron (in non-chronological order)
• It makes financially viable the creation of Galeria Cómicos, in Lisbon. Through monthly subsidies and actions at the inaugurations (cocktails and dinners), this patronage extends for about 3 years until the Gallery becomes financially viable. The Gallery is a must in the panorama of plastic arts in Portugal and among the approximately 225 exhibitions organized between 1944 and 2014, we highlight some names: Pedro Cabrita Reis, Julião Sarmento, Juan Muños, Cristina Iglésias, Roberto Wilson (Bob Wilson) , Joseph Kosuth, Michelange Pistoletto among others. The Gallery ceases to operate in 2015, with the death of gallery owner Luís Serpa.
• Supports the Capuchos Festival by providing cocktails in some openings
• Financially supports the After Modernism movement by buying advertising in the catalog.
• Finances the realization of a video made by Rui Simões that films a ballet by the dancer and choreographer Olga Roriz held in the gardens of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.
• Designed by architects Manuel Graça Dias + Egas José Vieira, he opened the Belém Clube Museu, in the space of Espelho d´Água, in Lisbon. For this project, works by Sol LeWitt (the only work by this author in Portugal), Clag & Gutmann, Joseph Kosuth, Matt Mulican, among others, were purchased.
• Designed by architects Manuel Graça Dias + Egas José Vieira, opens the Zutzu restaurant in Lisbon. Order the plastic artists Pedro Cabrita Reis, Julião Sarmento and Rui Sanches, 7x3 meter panels that are placed, alternately over the restaurant's entrance door.
• Commissioned to Nuno Carinhas, director, choreographer and former director of the Teatro Nacional de São João, in Porto, the “staging” of the Movies Café space.
Photography
The 70's
It starts in photography.
The first projects are linked to the world of theater.
He photographs essays of various plays, from the first reading texts until the day before the premiere of the plays. It is a long process, between 3 to 4 months, but it gives him the opportunity to establish a deep relationship between light and photography.
He photographed with directors such as Ricardo Pais, João Lourenço, Maria Luisa Martins and others.
He also photographed essays by the National Ballet Company, which was a school for the movement in photography.
He developed personal projects, of which he highlights “Cacilheiros”, (photograph of the boats that connect the two banks of the Tagus River, its passengers and crew) and “Avieiros” lake villages, its inhabitants and crafts.
When he interrupts his activity as a photographer, given that professional activities did not free up time to photograph, he loses all files from this period.
Chosen by José Reis as one of the featured photographers in Portuguese photography in the 70s / 80s, an order from the Portuguese Ministry of Culture.
Year 2006 and following, in no chronological order
• Installation of Pedro Cabrita Reis at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
• Montages of the exhibition “The shine of images” at the National Museum of Ancient Art
• Up & Down - Study and photos of a staircase at the Berardo Collection Museum
• Have you already made your wish - Based on an advertising phrase in a storefront at the Benetton store in Chiado, Lisbon, he develops a street photography project through which he establishes the deep connection between advertising storefronts, muppies and passers-by.
• Alice - In partnership with the painter Pedro Migueis, they create an installation based on the book Alice in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll.
• Crash - Collecting abandoned cans on the streets, he develops a project in which he establishes a relationship between the cans of Coca-Cola, one of the symbols of American culture, and the decay not only of America but also of its symbols.
• Les Fleurs du Mal - From the book by Charles Baudelaire, he photographs flowers in black environments. A website with the address https://myfleursdumal.wordpress.com/ is created and in which it transcribes all the poems from the 1st, 2nd and 3rd editions of that book, as well as some English translations. Each poem is accompanied by a photograph, totaling + - 160 poems / photographs
• Chronicles of the underground - Based on the book by French anthropologist Marc Auge, “An anthropologist in the metro”, he carries out a project in which he photographs the loneliness, aloofness and indifference of passengers on the Lisboa metro. One of the photographs in this project wins the prize for best photo of the year in a competition sponsored by the JPG Foundation in New York.
• Dancing in the streets - Photographs of a ball in a square in Lisbon
• Glamor side B - Appropriating the phrase ““ GLAMOR - sex appeal, plus luxury, plus elegance, plus romance… ”by Margaret Farrand Thorp (America at the movies, 1939) begins to photograph the B side of Glamor. Project under development.
Curator
• In the Café Valentim space, which he explored at the Megastore Valentim de Carvalho, in Chiado, Lisbon, he organizes and finances the project Livros de Cabeceira e Polaroids. Weekly exhibits Polaroids made by more than 60 guests such as Pedro Cabrita Reis, Julião Sarmento, Isabel Carlos, João Pinharanda but also managers, students from different areas, DJs, stylists, dancers and other professions. The project ended when the Megastore space was closed
In May 2020 created with Maria Ribeiro the Incubator Photo Gallery where they have developed intense curatorship activities.
Exhibitions
ACMP Art Space
Café Tati Gallery, Lisbon
1st Arts Meeting in Braga
2nd Arts Meeting in Braga
BShop of the Berardo Collection Museum
Fábrica Braço de Prata Gallery
Casa de Lamas Cultural Center in Vieira do Minho
Collections
Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation - Lisbon
JGS Foundation - New York (http://www.jgsinc.org/detailpopup.php?a=954)
Multiple private collections
