The Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto, in partnership with the Institute of Art History (IHA – NOVA FCSH), presents the exhibition "Dordio Gomes and Mural Painting in Porto: lime, pigments and pixels".

Fresco mural painting occupied a prominent place in Dordio Gomes’s artistic practice and teaching activity. However, this dimension of his work remains little known to the general public. The murals he produced in Porto between 1944 and 1961—whose architectural nature prevents their relocation – now gain new visibility through digitisation, which enables their transposition into the exhibition space.

Resulting from the exploratory project Mural in Motion (2023.11110.PEX), coordinated by IHA – NOVA FCSH, the exhibition combines digital reproductions with material evidence, aiming to present Dordio Gomes’s frescoes and to raise public awareness of the issues that mid-twentieth-century mural painting poses today, as living heritage integrated into the city. Through different formats of mural presentation – full-scale projections, interactive devices, three-dimensional reconstructions, animations, models, and panels produced a fresco – the exhibition seeks to reveal the complexity of the “mural equation,” a concept that encapsulates the interdependence between commission, space, architecture, public reception, and sociopolitical context.

The exhibition route is organised into several thematic sections that contextualise Dordio Gomes’s mural production within the programme of the Synthesis of the Arts promoted by the Porto School of Fine Arts, and that explore the processes of official commissioning during the Estado Novo, as well as heritage-related issues concerning the preservation of art integrated into architecture. A brief concluding reflection on photogrammetry – the digitisation process that enabled the recording and exhibition of the works presented – highlights the mediating role of technology in the communication of artistic heritage.

SCIENTIFIC CURATORSHIP
Begoña Farré Torras
Leticia Crespillo Marí

COORDINATION
Andreia Magalhães