30 years of Biblioteca Municipal Raul Brandão

The current Raul Brandão Municipal Library has its origins in the Library and Literature Support Service of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, created around 40 years ago under the direction of Branquinho da Fonseca. In 1964, the direction of the Círculo de Arte e Recreio (CAR) made a request for support to the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and in 1966 the Fixed Library nº 127 of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation was inaugurated at the CAR headquarters. In 1975, this Library was installed in the old Paços do Concelho building, remaining there until 1992. In May 1987, emphasis was given to the project to create a Municipal Library, long desired by the population, and so necessary for all those who enjoy reading and a leisure space. On March 7, 1992, the Raul Brandão Municipal Library was inaugurated. Its patron, the one who gives it its name, was a great writer and playwright who lived from 1886 to 1901 in Guimarães. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Raul Brandão Library, this institution together with the artist Nuno Machado decided to invite me to intervene in the sculptural work developed by the artist. This work takes the form of the number "30" and presents the theme: "Reading is heritage. 30 years, 30 words". To communicate this theme, I decided to create the sensation that the sculpture was itself a book, so I used a graphic that represents all parts of the book cover in its surroundings. For the content of the "cover" I created a character alluding to the writer Raul Brandão, creating a composition of this character in various reading positions, illustrated and calligraphed and containing the 30 words shared by the Library.