​Mariano Rajoy attends inauguration of Joan Miró exhibition in Portugal

Serralves Foundation, Porto (Portugal)

After touring the exhibition, inaugurated by the President of the Portuguese Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, and the Portuguese Prime Minister, Antonio Costa, Mariano Rajoy described this as an event to "celebrate our shared culture". From among the ties that unite our two countries, he asserted, cultural ties "are particularly deep and entrenched", and hence to participate in the opening of an exhibition of "a flagship compatriot, a Catalan, a Spaniard, a European and a universal artist such as Joan Miró, is a great privilege and a source of joy".

The acting President of the Government highlighted that Spain cannot be understood alone without its relations with Portugal, or vice-versa, and that there are very few cases in the world "of such a rich, beneficial and exemplary model of neighbourly relations". Our relations have never been better, according to Mariano Rajoy, who advocated continuing along these lines in all areas, from energy interconnections to promoting cultural, educational and scientific exchanges.

As a Galician, the President of the Government declared that he was "particularly aware" of the "intense Atlantic vocation" shared by the two countries during the course of their history and, quoting a Portuguese intellectual, Gabriel Magalhães, he referred to Europe as the "new ocean" shared by Spaniards and the Portuguese. In this regard, he urged everyone to "consider and enrich the European project from an Iberian level standpoint", as corresponds "to two societies and two countries that are much more than just neighbours, partners and allies".

Mariano Rajoy expressed his conviction that the Joan Miró exhibition will be a success, and highlighted the freedom with which he reinterpreted the Spanish pictorial tradition, combining the avant-garde with popular roots and thus creating an art-form "that manages to be fully European while based on its deep-rooted Hispanic foundations, from the countryside of deepest Catalonia to the inspiration derived from Majorca".

"Joan Miró: Materialidade e metamorfose"

The exhibition contains 80 works created by Joan Miró between 1924 and 1982, the majority of which have not been viewed by the general public and are the property of the Portuguese State. It reflects the particular transformation from the pictorial language that the Catalan artist began to use in the 1920s in the fields of design, painting and fabrics.

The exhibition will be on permanent display at the Serralves Foundation in Porto, for which Mariano Rajoy expressed his gratitude. "Miró's works could not be in a better place or in better hands".