Full title: Lime, Pigments, and Pixels – Bringing Modern Mural Heritage Back to Public Life: A Critical Approach to Computational and Digital Tools for Art Historical Curatorship
Mural in Motion (2023.11110.PEX) pilots an interdisciplinary approach to mid-20th century murals, a neglected, vulnerable, and little understood part of modern art heritage, using digital and public humanities tools to document, digitally preserve, study, exhibit, and foster a discussion in the public arena on their societal value and preservation needs.
A corpus of seven fresco murals created in Porto by Simão César Dordio Gomes (1890-1976) between 1944 and 1960 will be the project’s object of research in art history, heritage conservation and virtualisation, animation, digital and material curatorship, audience engagement, and contemporary art practice. The project will conduct a critical examination of digital curatorial strategies in a testbench exhibition combining digital and analog exhibits to assess the epistemological implications, societal impact and sustainability of digitising works of art for purposes of academic study and public dissemination.
Expected outputs
In addition to the testbench exhibition of the murals, communication of activities and findings from the project’s two interrelated research lines – Dordio Gomes’ mid-20th century murals and their dissemination through critical digital curatorial practices – will be achieved through an online platform with high resolution images of the digitised murals, an exhibition catalogue, guided visits to the exhibition, public discussions on the murals in their physical locations, a fresco workshop, MA dissertations and seminars, an international conference and academic articles.
Main scientific domain: Humanities
Scientific sub-domain: Arts – Art History
Keywords: Mural Painting; Mid-20th Century Mural Heritage; Technomediated Curatorship; Public Humanities
Funding: 49.980,04 € (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P.)
Institutions involved:
Instituto de História da Arte – Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa (IHA – NOVA FCSH)
Universidad de Málaga (UMA)
Faculdade de Belas Artes da Universidade do Porto (FBAUP)
Universidade Católica Portuguesa no Porto (UCP)
Leeds Beckett University (LBU)
Reial Acadèmia Catalana de Belles Arts de Sant Jordi (RACBA)
TEAM
PI: Begoña Farré Torras (IHA – NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Co-PI: Leticia Crespillo Marí (UMA)
Josep Minguell (RACBA)
Liam Jefferies (LBU)
Marta Soares (IHA – NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Patrícia Tonel Monteiro (UCP)
Paula Ribeiro Lobo (IHA – NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Sónia Moura (IHA – NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST; FBAUP)
Master’s Students:
Mariana Escoval dos Santos (NOVA FCSH)
Paulo Simão Diogo (Universidade Lusófona)
Consultants:
Joana Cunha Leal (IHA – NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Lúcia Almeida Matos (IHA – NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST; FBAUP)
