On November 22, the first site meeting was held for the restoration work carried out by WMF on the mural paintings at the Gare Marítima da Rocha do Conde de Óbidos in Lisbon. On this occasion, the ALMADA project team had the opportunity to clarify existing doubts about the technique, materials and forms of degradation of the materials present in the paintings, thus fulfilling one of the objectives of the ALMADA project. As well as sharing elements of the research, there was also the chance to climb the scaffolding with some members of the Nova Conservação, Lda team and show on site some of the aspects mentioned in the documents provided, including the issue of the profusion of shiny and matte areas in the paintings and the location of the adhesive test areas, carried out in 1971 by technicians from the then José de Figueiredo Institute.
We also took advantage of this opportunity to exchange ideas on the treatment method to be adopted for the flaking paint layers. It was agreed that, in view of the analyses presented, it would be prudent to try to use some of the adhesives already present to reattach the scales, eliminating as much as possible of the excess on the surface. This is because it will never be possible to completely remove the adhesives that have already been applied in previous interventions and, in this way, the addition of new products to the deteriorated paint layers is avoided as much as possible. At the very least, lets try it out to see if it's possible and make decisions from there.
This was the start of a dialog that we intend to keep active over the next 18 months, with the aim of getting to know and safeguarding this artistic legacy.
Legenda: equipa de conservação e restauro e do projeto ALMADA junto às pinturas murais de Almada. Da esquerda para a direita: Inês Cardoso, Maria João Revez, José Carlos Frade, Giuseppe Agulli e Milene Gil. Projeto Almada2023.