More than a hotel, a museum

It was at the age of 18 that Armando Martins (b. 1949) began to take an interest in visual arts and collecting, when he acquired silkscreen prints in partnership with a friend. On the day he turned 25, on March 22, 1974, he offered himself his first original work of art: an abstract painting by Rogério Ribeiro.

“It was the colors,” says the collector, adding that “abstract art has one advantage: you look at it and see what you want. And different readings can be taken every day. That’s why I still love this painting as much as I did when I bought it almost 51 years ago.”

Since then, Armando Martins has been acquiring modern and contemporary art for his collection, which is constantly updated. And if until the end of the 90s of the last century the founder only bought pieces by Portuguese artists such as José Malhoa, Amadeo Sousa Cardoso, Santa-Rita, Eduardo Viana, Almada Negreiros, Júlio Pomar, Noronha da Costa, Paula Rego or Julião Sarmento, from 2000 onwards he also began to acquire works of international art.

The desire to found a museum to share his collection with the public began a long time ago, but it was with the private acquisition of the Palácio dos Condes da Ribeira Grande, on Rua da Junqueira, in 2007, that this desire began to take shape. “It only makes sense to have a collection if it is to be displayed. I think this is a path that others should follow, especially because it represents an asset for the city, for the country and for all of us,” he adds.

The different spaces of the Museum, which is also a hotel

Housed in the historic building of the Palácio Condes da Ribeira Grande, which dates back to the beginning of the 18th century, MACAM comprises a total of 13 thousand square meters, two thousand of which are exhibition space. The building’s renovation, carried out by the Portuguese architecture studio MetroUrbe, sought a harmonious relationship between the palace – where the galleries are located on the ground floor and the hotel on the upper floor – and the contemporary extension that houses the museum’s temporary exhibition program.

The façade of this new wing – which won an award at this year’s Surface Design Awards in London – is covered in a series of three-dimensional tiles by artist and ceramist Maria Ana Vasco Costa.The hotel, created as a financing engine and to support the project’s autonomy, has 64 personalized rooms, each offering a unique artistic experience, as each room features works from the MACAM collection, as do the corridor and outdoor terraces.

As it is impossible to exhibit the more than 600 pieces that make up the collection, MACAM will show, for now, around 210, the result of “a curatorial choice, which has to do with the representation of artists and the possible dialogues”, explains Adelaide Ginga, director of MACAM.

The art historian and curator explains how this collection is organized in space: “In the palace, we have two galleries that will show part of the collection permanently. Gallery 1 is dedicated to what was the first core of the collection, formed around Portuguese art, and which has a chronological path through pieces that are highly representative of the history of art from the end of the 19th century to the end of the 1980s. In Gallery 2, which brings together Portuguese and international contemporary art, the organization is no longer chronological, but rather thematic groups, where Portuguese works interact with foreign works.”

Under the motto The House of Private Collections, MACAM will not only showcase its founder’s personal art collection, but will also invite other private collectors to showcase their collections, reinforcing the mission of making them visible to the public. This will take place in the new building, dedicated to temporary exhibitions, which has two rooms that allow for larger-scale works to be displayed.

Confident and happy about what MACAM will bring to the Belém area, where there are other museums such as MAAT or MAC/CCB dedicated to contemporary art, Adelaide Ginga considers the distinction that exists between them to be important, as well as the relationship of complementarity.

The director highlights that “Lisbon lacks a permanent exhibition that represents the evolution of Portuguese art in the 20th century”, and adds: “here at MACAM, with four galleries, it is worth dedicating two of them to a permanent exhibition that allows us to discover contemporary Portuguese art. It’s great for the public to know that a certain collection has a set of emblematic works and to be able to access them.”

The Live Arts Bar in the old chapel

The Live Arts Bar is located in the building’s chapel, dating from the 18th century, desecrated, restored and transformed into a venue for cultural events. The program, aimed at both hotel guests and the general public, aims to energize the entire Junqueira area through performing arts, music and words.

Adelaide Ginga emphasizes that it is “very important that the word once again gains the dimension of a spectacle. We want to stimulate the taste for listening to poems, for reciting them, for getting to know literature and poetry and valuing it in articulation with music, in a careful and intimate environment”.

The opening of MACAM is scheduled for the 22nd, a date that has a special meaning: in addition to being Armando Martins’ birthday, it also coincides with the acquisition of his first original work. The museum’s opening will be marked by three days of events and activities with free entry, to be announced soon.