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The behind the scenes of a museum in nine episodes.
Nine security guards from the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, in Lisbon, invite us to appreciate works of their choice from the Museum's permanent exhibition, in a presentation that crosses art, everyday life and biography.
João Estrada
9
Álvaro Costa came to Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga in 2016, despite during his childhood having spent many school afternoons in the Museum's garden drawing. The themes in the "Last Judgement" painting, Álvaro's favourite, mirror his sense of duty and responsibility. Performing different tasks as surveillance guard, surveillance coordinator and receptionist, he faces several challenges and unforeseen events that leave many stories to tell.
May 15, 2022
António Machado joined the Museum's staff in 2015. Living in Amadora, in the suburbs of Lisbon, everyday he rediscovers the city not on his way to work, but through the 18th century painting "View of Lisbon". This surveillance guard doesn't really know why he loves this artwork; maybe it's the colours, the multitude of details, the wide dimension? On his work routine, conversations with the visitors fill his days the same way this painting fills his eyes.
Jul 5, 2022
Carla Pereira has been in the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga since 2017. She appreciates the tranquility of the surveillance work without neglecting the constant attention to the visitor. However, not everything goes well all the time and when unforeseen circumstances occur, only Carla and her colleagues can ensure the Museum's doors stay open. She remains enchanted by the art pieces she guards, even by those she knows well, but the one that delights her most is a particular sculpture of Virgin Mary, who smiles tenderly at her every day of work.
Aug 2, 2022
Jeanine Baptista came from Azores, from the Museu Carlos Machado, in 2021. The pieces she comes across every day, now at Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, bring her imagination to life, but it is the hypnotic (and maybe supernatural) effect of the Divine light in Domingos Sequeira's "Adoration of the Magi" that truly amazes Jeanine.
Sep 5, 2022
Dulce Gonzaga came to work for the MNAA in 2006, but her first time visiting the Museum was when she was 5 years old, by the hand of her grandfather. Raised near the 9 de Abril Garden, she came across the infamous painting "Hell" on one of those visits. More curious than haunted, she returns years later as an employee, to rediscover that strange image that stayed with her ever since.
Oct 10, 2022
Paulo Almeida had already been in MNAA in 2014 and returned permanently in 2019, when he joined the board of technical assistants. As a surveillance guard, he has passionately studied the pieces of the collection he guards. When his favourite pieces, a Jubako and a Powder Flask, are removed for maintenance, Paulo follows them into the Museum's archives... And we shall go with him.
Nov 22, 2022
Since he was a child, Paulo Pinheiro has had a great desire for discovery. Having arrived from Aveiro for a visit, this 14-year-old boy's first step in a great museum was precisely at the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, in Lisbon. Years later, he returns as a volunteer supporting the cleaning and restoration of stone pieces and ends up staying as a surveillance guard in 2015. Paulo doesn't have favourite artworks, but the association of a jar in a Portuguese altarpiece painting to a piece of Chinese ceramics motivates a curious presentation and evokes themes that fascinate Paulo, such as contemplation, peace and self discovery.
Jan 2, 2023
Each day, Paulo Pires' routine alternates between long hours of surveillance and the turmoil of the errands service, which requires him to be always walking from one place to another. In Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, it's rare to find him standing in the same place, but in this chapter of "In Our Care", he stops himself before the famous "Temptation of St. Anthony", by Hieronymus Bosch, a painting which is beyond anything Paulo could have ever imagined.
Feb 7, 2023
Since 1996 at the MNAA, Pedro Miranda is one of the longest-serving employees in the institution. He saw the walls transform, colleagues come and go, new acquisitions, dozens of temporary exhibitions and hundreds of thousands of visitors. For 17 years, he was the guardian of the Museum at night and, from his experience, the pieces do not come to life as they do in the movies. The only thing that hasn't changed since his arriving is the Level 2 of the Museum, where his favourite piece of art remains - the iconic Namban Folding Screens.
May 17, 2023
