Executive Commissioner – José da Costa Reis and Paula Oliveira
Selection of works and texts – Altamiro da Costa Pereira. Director of the Faculty of Medicine University of Porto, António de Sousa Pereira. Rector of the University of Porto, Henrique Cyrne Carvalho, Director of the Institute of Biomedical Sciences Abel Salazar, Miguel Pinto, Director of the Faculty of Dental Medicine of the University of Porto.
The DEPOSITORIUM 2 exhibition features works of art chosen from the Museum’s reserves by the Rector of the University of Porto and the directors of the Faculties of Medicine and Dental Medicine and the Abel Salazar Institute of Biomedical Sciences of this academy. Reinforcing a partnership that has been worked on in recent months, the exhibition features pieces from the ceramics, drawing, sculpture, lapidary and painting collections.
The exhibition circuit is based on a reflection on Art and Medicine, historically interconnected concepts. The ties that unite this professional world of health with that of museums are close: both assume themselves as guardians, some of human heritage, their body and mind, and others of cultural, material and immaterial heritage. Never before have they complemented each other so much, and today, Art is often prescribed as a therapy and a form of disease prevention, says António Ponte, Director of the Museu Nacional Soares dos Reis, at the opening of the exhibition.
António de Sousa Pereira, Rector of the University of Porto, justifies that the selection of works stems from his condition as a doctor and researcher in Biomedicine and highlights the raw, and often poignant way in which they represent human suffering and death itself. The pieces selected by the Rector are joined by those from the Directors of the Faculty of Medicine and Dental Medicine, as well as the Abel Salazar Institute of Biomedical Sciences.