The Casa A. Molder Gallery
2020- 2024
The Casa A. Molder Gallery
The Casa A. Molder Gallery project began in November 2020, as the pandemic raged. It comes to an end now, in March 2024, with 17 exhibitions under its belt.
This philately shop, which was founded by my paternal grandfather, August Molder, in April 1943, and turned 80 last year, will permanently close its doors to the public on 22 March 2024, this Friday.
It is very hard to feel, at the end of something, the level of excitement we felt at its start. To feel such an excitement at the end demands a certain amount of reflection.
Looking back, what came first to my mind were all the invitations I made to the artists, my visits to their studios, the projects they proposed and the texts I wrote for each exhibition. Then came the exhibitions themselves, the transportation of the pieces, their installation in the space, the close relationship with each artist, and finally seeing the pieces displayed, the exhibition openings and the visitors.
Nothing is forgotten: the artists’ preciseness in their requests, in their works (and the manner of their display), in their discourse, in their relationships; a preciseness that also has a social quality, in their embracing of the project and their awareness of the space.
The Casa A. Molder Gallery project had a single motto: “The artist rules supreme”. I hope all artists and visitors sensed that. Even though I was the sole originator of this project, having selected the artists, applied for support, prepared and sent invitations and, of course, written all texts myself, I was not alone through all this. So, I wish to send my deepest thanks to, first and foremost, and in the order their exhibitions were presented, these generous souls, the artists, without whom that project would never have existed: Gustavo Sumpta,
Ana Catarina Fragoso, Rui Chafes, Bárbara Fonte, Francisco Tropa, Maria Condado, João Belga, Carla Rebelo, Bruno Pacheco, Sandra Vásquez de la Horra, Carla Castiajo, Mariana Viegas,
Joana da Conceição, Rui Sanches, Hugo Brazão, Sara & André and Henrique Pavão.
As I look back, I must not fail to mention the space, since it was from it that the idea of the project emerged: not only from the exhibition rooms, which once were the premises of a commercial art gallery, but from the whole Casa A. Molder, a stamp shop that existed for eighty years and always struck me as a place frozen in time (“enchanted”, even), hovering in a tenuous balance between decay and splendour.
I also wish to thank Carmina Correia (sadly posthumously) and
Luís Santos for embracing this project and warmly welcoming its visitors, Gustavo Sumpta for all his assistance, my mother,
Maria Filomena Molder, for reading my texts, and José Gabriel Flores, for translating them. Special thanks to Ana Catarina Fragoso for her good advice and encouraging me to go ahead with the project. My thanks to Direcção Geral das Artes for its financial support of the project’s Part 1, and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and particularly the Lisbon City Council for financing its Part 2.
Finally (of course), a huge thanks to all the visitors who came to the exhibitions over a period of almost four years!
These three (almost four) years were a great learning experience, and yes, I feel very excited about bringing the Casa A. Molder Gallery project to an end. I am excited about all that was accomplished!
Yours,
Adriana Molder
Shop Announcement:
We inform our esteemed Customers that the Casa A. Molder stamp shop, founded by August Molder, will permanently close its doors to the public on 22 March 2024.
This brings to a close eighty years devoted to philately, numismatics and art.
It is with great joy, and the full support of the Molder family, that we also announce that Luís Santos will soon open, under his own name, a new stamp shop in Lisbon, thus continuing the fascinating business of the “World of Stamps”.
For any matter related to the Casa A. Molder and Luís Santos’s new Shop, please contact:
Luis Santos: 96 213 97 42
Adriana Molder © All Rights Reserved
