Serralves. The government learned of Isabel Pires de Lima's resignation through the media.

The Government stated this Tuesday that it learned of Isabel Pires de Lima's resignation as chairman of the board of directors of the Serralves Foundation through the media.

"The Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport has learned, through the media, of Professor Isabel Pires de Lima's decision to cease her duties as President of the Board of Directors of the Serralves Foundation," reads a statement sent to newsrooms by the ministry led by Margarida Balseiro Lopes.

In the same note, the government says it "respects" "Professor Isabel Pires de Lima's decision," thanking her for her "work." "This is a personal choice, and it is up to her alone to justify it," it reads.

According to the institution's statutes, the election of the next president will be carried out by the Board of Directors.

"The Serralves Foundation is a private institution of public utility, with its own statutes and autonomous governing bodies. According to these statutes, the election of the next president will be made by the Board of Directors itself, from among its members, in a meeting convened for that purpose," it further notes,

The Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports emphasizes that Serralves "is a solid foundation, with a cultural program of national and international reference, and that it maintains full confidence in the institution that, as always, will ensure, with stability and continuity, the pursuit of its cultural mission."

It should be noted that the president of the board of directors of the Serralves Foundation, Isabel Pires de Lima, resigned from her position due to a lack of "conditions of trust and institutional solidarity" to perform it.

In a statement released today and signed by Isabel Pires de Lima herself, appointed to the presidency of the Porto-based foundation at the end of last year to replace Ana Pinho (who took over as president of the Board of Founders), she writes: "After more than half a year of activity, and after deep reflection, I make this decision because I understand that the conditions of trust and institutional solidarity that would allow me to fully exercise the role are not met at the level of the current board of directors."

"My resignation from my position has immediate effect, avoiding prolonging an uncomfortable situation for everyone, but, above all, detrimental to the healthy functioning of the Foundation," added the former Minister of Culture.

In the statement, Isabel Pires de Lima considers that "an art production space like Serralves must, at all times, disturb, destabilize, question, or else it will simply be a place for [people] who are too content with themselves, in that potentially castrating happiness that success brings."

The professor emeritus at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Porto also expressed gratitude to the founders of Serralves, "as well as to the Serralves teams, both operational and creative, for their high level of professionalism and dedication."

"I observed in them an enviable institutional sense, without which Serralves would never have achieved the prestige it has. I will always be grateful to all of them, for the opportunity they gave me and for all they taught me," she added.

Before chairing the board of directors, Isabel Pires de Lima was vice-president of that body, to which she was appointed in 2015, as a representative of the State.

The current board of directors of the Serralves Foundation has as vice-presidents Fernando Cunha Guedes, Luís Silva Santos and Paula Paz Ferreira, in addition to the members Manuel Sobrinho Simões, Tomás Jervell, Armando Cabral, Maria do Carmo Oliveira and Luís Menezes.

As the foundation's website recalls, "Serralves began under the presidency of João Marques Pinto (1989-2000), who would later be replaced in the role by Teresa Patrício Gouveia (2001-2003) and then by António Gomes de Pinho (2003-2009), who was succeeded in 2010 by president Luís Braga da Cruz (2010-2015) and later by Ana Pinho (2016-2024)".

During Ana Pinho's term in 2021, the foundation's statutes were amended to allow the chairman of the board of directors to serve a third term, previously limited to two.

[News updated at 7:20 p.m.]

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