CACE - Centro: the state contemporary art collection has a new home in Alcabideche

“This space is not, and will not be, a museum,” says Sandra Vieira Jürgens, director and curator of CACE - Centro, which was inaugurated this Wednesday, 1 July. “This space was not created to replace art museums—quite the contrary. It was born to reinforce their vision and mission, creating better conditions for the collection to circulate, contributing to an increasingly unique and diverse programme for these museums, and continuing to reach more and more people. Art and culture only fulfil their mission when they find audiences, when they generate knowledge, and when they contribute to new interpretations and new ways of understanding the world and understanding others,” she explained.

The new and permanent home of the State Contemporary Art Collection (CACE) is in Alcabideche and is already open to the public. Located in an industrial zone building that previously housed the Ellipse Foundation collection, the space was recovered by the State following the insolvency of Banco Privado Português and adapted after an investment of around one million euros.

The inauguration ceremony brought together the Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Margarida Balseiro Lopes, the Mayor of Cascais, Nuno Piteira Lopes, and the President of Museums and Monuments of Portugal, Alexandre Nobre Pais. Moving away from the traditional museum concept, the centre adopts a hybrid model focused on the management, study, and transparency of a public collection comprising over 3,200 pieces.

For its opening, the centre presents the exhibition "Dual Sim", curated by Filipa da Rocha Nunes and Sofia Montanha, gathering a selection of 23 works acquired since 2019, when the annual acquisition programme was regularly resumed. In addition to a large central room and temporary exhibition spaces, the complex features a black box for multimedia projects and has launched an artistic collaboration involving the National Ballet Company. Currently, CACE Centro holds around 1,300 works in storage, whilst the remainder are distributed across embassies, public bodies, and partner museums such as Serralves or the MAC/CCB.

Through scheduled, guided visits, citizens, students, and researchers can experience the collection and come into direct contact with the technical behind-the-scenes of the archive. "We have the works available not only when they are on display, but there is also an experience of connecting with what constitutes day-to-day management," explains Sandra Vieira Jürgens, the facility's director and curator. In an interview with Time Out, she highlights that the location in Alcabideche took advantage of a pre-existing structure and decentralises access: "A storage space in Lisbon would be madness. Here, the public can view the reserves and the new acquisitions, alongside having educational services and knowledge production right in this central room."

The programming will also cross paths with other artistic expressions through institutional partnerships. Similar to the project developed with the National Ballet Company for the opening, CACE Centro's management intends to "continue partnerships that can offer a reinterpretation of the works through other fields," such as dance or theatre, the director tells us. Added to this is a strong educational and cultural mediation component, aimed at pedagogically bringing students, researchers, and the local community closer to the State collection.

CACE Centro can be visited from Monday to Friday, from 09:30 to 12:30 and from 14:00 to 17:00, with prior booking mandatory via the official website. The space is closed on weekends and public holidays, but to ensure connection with the local community, there will be one Saturday a month with free entry and no booking required.

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