Do monumento à escultura pública em Portugal no século XX

Abstract

The Portuguese Public Sculpture from the twentieth century finds itself fully connected with the public space, with the celebrative act, and with the posterior principles of an international sculpture. Following a change in the politic, social and urban reality, stated in the second half of the twentieth century, the public sculpture reflects the new ideals of democracy, social equality and freedom. The route of the Portuguese Public Sculpture of the twentieth century denounces the primacy of two sculptural typologies, corresponding to the monument and the modern public sculpture. So, the second half of the twentieth century will proceed in a new sculptural presence, divergent from a classical tradition and from its monumentality, which will list new methodological forms and new materials with a new understanding of modern urbanity and architecture that now dominates the new cities. It’s the proclamation of the site and its individual identity that will allow a sculptural multiplicity, unlimited in its formal and thematic potentiation. Nourished by a consciousness of identity, the new public sculpture will proceed in the individualization of the site, and in the celebration of facts and personalities through the sculptural intervention/integration that oscillates between a mimetic representation and an abstract manifestation. In the attempt of integration with the public, it is proved, in the Portuguese territory, the union of the monument with the modern public sculpture, as a way of seeking to encourage a reading and a legitimation by the public, used to the monumental presence. Carrier of a referential autonomy and of an unlimited formal/ aesthetic dialect, the new public sculpture also demonstrates an attempt which aims for the integration of sculpture in the urban reality, in its modular and geometric forms