Issue 5 of the journal Revista de Museus, published in April 2026, marks 50 years of freedom and democracy in museums. The issue, edited by Clara Fray\u00e3o Camacho, focuses on the new perspective on the public museum policies that democracy made possible in Portugal, a perspective based on critical analysis and on the well-known UNESCO Mission led by Per-Uno \u00c5gren, which took place between 1976 and 1979.<\/p>\n
With regard to Cl\u00e1udio Torres, the issue notes that he associates \u201cmuseology and research with the broadening of the scope of heritage and with the development of territories far from the coast. A revolutionary look at the inland Alentejo is the keynote of Miguel Rego\u2019s article \u2018Cl\u00e1udio Torres: You Don\u2019t Debate Museology, You Practise It!\u2019 With the territory of M\u00e9rtola at the centre of a wide-ranging process of historical construction, marked by openness to the Islamic presence and by the central role of exhibitions as a means of justifying the scientific project to the community, Cl\u00e1udio Torres\u2019s unique work at the M\u00e9rtola Museum demonstrates the potential for territorial transformation and local development anchored in heritage and in the Museum\u201d. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n For Miguel Rego, \u201cdifficulties aside, in this inland Alentejo region, the reality associated with the museum complex is the result of a process that began in 1978 under the guidance and inspiration of Cl\u00e1udio Torres, who, through all manner of vicissitudes, gradually built a project in the field of cultural and landscape heritage, a flagship that cannot be overlooked whenever one lists projects in \u2018deep Portugal\u2019 devoted to safeguarding, dignifying, exhibiting and studying memory and identity.<\/p>\n Breaking out beyond the walled enclosure of the historic centre (because Cl\u00e1udio Torres\u2019s project did not settle into the all-too-comfortable armchair of beauty, history and ambience that the old town of M\u00e9rtola offered), M\u00e9rtola\u2019s group of museums takes on, in this context, an essential role in the identification of the \u2018scientific and cultural project\u2019. But equally in developing the community\u2019s sense of belonging to its territory and in enhancing the urban fabric. A detail of no small importance, now understood as a key driver of the municipality\u2019s economic life, as a magnet for thousands of tourists.<\/p>\n (\u2026) In all the museum projects in which he is involved, Cl\u00e1udio Torres is not only the museologist, so often tagged with the \u2018agitprop\u2019 label, but also the architect, the designer, the photographer, the content producer. And in so doing, he brought to museology after the 25 April 1974 revolution the idea that \u2018it is possible\u2019. It is possible to carry out research and present it to ordinary citizens; to enhance and dignify the identity of each place by promoting its local distinctiveness; to adapt practice to the resources available.<\/p>\n The university lecturer whom the School of Arts and Humanities of the University of Lisbon let go for \u2018bureaucratic\u2019 reasons brought to museology a methodology of intervention that carries the project into the 21st century, in a kind of constant dialogue between the scientific team, local stakeholders and organisations, and the community. And here, the stage par excellence for showcasing the work carried out is, undoubtedly, the Museum. And museological discourse, as he often said, is not something you debate: you practise it!\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Issue 5 of the journal Revista de Museus, published in April 2026, marks 50 years of freedom and democracy in museums. Ler mais Cl\u00e1udio Torres: You Don\u2019t Debate Museology, You Practise It!<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23483,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[135,131],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mertola-en","category-museum-of-mertola"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t