Estela Silva / Lusa
Isabel Pires de Lima, former Minister of Culture and President of the Foundation of Serralves
The chairman of the Board of Directors of the Foundation of Serralves, Isabel Pires de Lima, resigned with immediate effects for lack of “conditions of trust and institutional solidarity” to exercise it.
In a statement issued this Tuesday and signed by itself, ISABEL PIRES DE LIMAappointed to the presidency of the Foundation based in Porto at the end of last year to replace Ana Pinho, announced his resignation to the position.
“More than half a year of activity, and after profound reflection, I make this decision to understand that they are not gathered, at the level of this Board of Directors, Conditions of trust and solidarity Institutional that allow me to hold the position to the fullest, ”writes Pires de Lima in the statement.
“My renunciation of office has immediate effectsavoiding prolonging an uncomfortable situation for all but, above all, harmful to the healthy functioning of the foundation, ”added the former Minister of Culture.
In the statement, Isabel Pires de Lima considers that “a space for art production, such as Serralves has, at all times, to disturb, destabilize, interrogate – or will be just a place of too happy peoplein that potentially castrating happiness that success brings. ”
Following the dismissal of Isabel Pires de Lima, the so far vice president of the institution, Fernando Cunha Guedes, He was elected interim president of the foundation, announced the board of directors.
The decision was taken at an extraordinary meeting of the Board of Directors, which was attended by all members in office, in which election, unanimouslyby Fernando Cunha Guedes, released the body in a statement.
“In accordance with the statutes, this body will meet timely for the election of a new element and a new president, by co -optation”You can read.
The agency also thanked “all the commitment and dedication demonstrated by Isabel Pires de Lima to Serralves, over the last few years.”
Government maintains “full confidence” at the Foundation
The Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport says it maintains “full confidence” at the Foundation of Serralves, after the resignation of Isabel Pires de Lima was known to the Presidency.
The Ministry recalls that the “Foundation of Serralves is an institution of private law and public utility, with own statutes and autonomous governance bodies ”, and the election of the next president is elected to the Board of Directors, in which they have a seat two state representatives.
The board of directors had as vice-presidents Fernando Cunha Guedes, Luís Silva Santos, Paula Paz Ferreira, in addition to the vowels Manuel Sobrinho Simões, Tomás Jervell, Armando Cabral, Maria do Carmo Oliveira and Luís Menezes. The state is represented by Paula Paz Ferreira and Luís Menezes.
According to the foundation of the Foundation, the State has a seat on the Council of Founders and may request the dismissal in court of the Board of Directors, in cases of “manifest disrespect for the statutory purposes of the Foundation”, or “intentional or guilty acts that cause severe damage to the Foundation’s heritage”.
The dismissal may also be required by “unjustified suspension of the Foundation’s activities for a period of more than six months”, “not filling, for one year, the vacancies that occur to the Board of Directors”, “Termination by the Board of Directors, the exercise of their competences, expressly, in the non -holding, for one year, of ordinary meetings, at least three consecutive or five interclas Foundation until December 31 of the following year ”.
According to, the minister Margarida Balseiro Lopes He says he only learned of the decision by the media and classifies it as “a personal optionwhose justification is up to itself. ”
Isabel Pires de Lima was Minister of Culture between March 2005 and January 2008, at the XVII Constitutional Government of Portugal led by José Socrateshaving been a deputy in the Assembly of the Republic between 1999 and 2009, elected in the socialist party lists.
