Buyers have a deep understanding of the artists?
RF: People who like to collect these works of art, taking into account their preferences, or the logic of their collection, or even buy a work because it tells them something at the same time having the advantage of being a good investment, is I would say a very wide audience. There is no single trend in the fine arts.
The artists in Portugal complain that it is very difficult to succeed in this environment, do you share this view?
RF: Yes, for several reasons. The gallery owner in Portugal is a tradition with a few decades. While abroad, the art galleries existed for a long time. In our country, if you notice, with the exception of one or another space that has emerged over these 40 years, as is the case of Alvarez in the city of Porto and Gallery 111 in Lisbon, the boom of the appearance of these spaces especially emerged from the eighties on. But many others have opened and closed during the nineties over the last century, but it is a recent market.
Do you think this is due also to the fact that there are no tradicional buyers for art?
RF: You might notice, some investors, art collectors and people who love to flow through these means and that end up betting on art are averaging between the 45 years old until 65 years of age, for example, that’s the vast majority. Now, are starting to show up potential younger buyers, especially couples who had not previously appeared in the time of our parents or grandparents. They usually acquire a piece or contemporary photography. There is not only the business side of the collection as an investment, the success of the artist a, b or c, can be sometimes a matter of fashion. I end up being a little disappointed with the national market for art, for being too speculative, there is no distinct line, is made of ups and downs; there are no well defined rules and appropriate quotations. Everyone is at the mercy of trends as I mentioned. Note that it is a country where gallery owners have their backs turned to each other. There is no union. This is the downside, on the other hand, is a privilege to work in this world these days, turns out to have its compensations.
You focused your attention in describing the type of public visiting the gallery, but you did not told me what is the balance that you do of these ten years?
FR: In terms of a journey, I usually say that a space is not a gallery without making ten years of existence. Reaching a decade it can be considered as such, it has many exhibitions organized, promoted and disseminated. There are many very good artists and distributed collections of art that we helped build. Despite being a private gallery, which has no kind of support or subsidy, is a space that is not only interested in betting on the most secure names in the market, there is a willingness to invest in new artists. In 2006, we created the Project room which is a concept that is not seen in art galleries and was an important step in the path of the philosophy of the gallery. Of course, there are external factors that prevent Mouraria to participate, because it is impossible at this stage to be part of contemporary art fairs. It is a type of investment that involves a lot of financial backing and has to be on standby at this time. Still, taking the motto go out and show the silver of the house, much work has been done that is not restricted to the physical space of the gallery, its walls. We promote other events, I mean we have established partnerships with various entities, such as clinics, with symposium and some school libraries, where we took a small collective of artists selected because we felt that although the space within is the usual selling space, we showcase outside to congregate people with art and the proposals of the artists in residence.
