Employees of the OPWAY Group, together with hundreds of family and friends, got together on the 12th of December to celebrate the Christmas season in a party at the Passeio Marítimo de Algés. For the second year running, and to the great joy of the almost 500 children present, the circus was the theme for this gathering which included attractions such as the smallest man in the world, a big wheel, jugglers, acrobats, a number of horses and international clowns.
At the end, Jorge Grade Mendes, president of the Executive Committee, addressed those present and wished everyone season’s greetings, from him and from Filipe Soares Franco, president of the Board of Directors. Alongside the performances of the Hugo Cardinali Circus, children had the opportunity to enjoy a carrousel, dodgems, balloons and many sweet treats, which filled an adjacent tent. The event brought together around 1 500 employees from the subsidiaries of the Group - Recipav, Recipneu, Pavicentro and OPWAY Imobiliária. 

 OPWAY sponsors painting exhibition by Martinho Costa – 12/03/2009 
 

Martinho Costa’s exhibition entitled Reconstrução (Reconstruction) opened on 12 March this year in the Espaço Arte Tranquilidade in Lisbon. Sponsored by OPWAY, which supports an up-and-coming artist every year, this event was attended by Filipe Soares Franco, the group’s chairman, and Jorge Grade Mendes, chairman of OPWAY Engenharia. The exhibition featured 26 works by the painter and a book on the paintings on display was also launched at the same event, with texts by the writer Emília Ferreira.

Martinho Costa observed that “this series recreates the intervention of time and Man in contemporary buildings, made of concrete or wood, based on images I found and retrieved from the Internet”. The artist split the works into two phases. The first is a continuation of the earlier one, “Ruína”, on show in Galeria 111. "I wanted to tackle the topic of ruin in painting, as displayed in the 18th century works of Hubert Robert, Guardi, Canaletto, etc. I wanted to update it, and apply it to the modern world where we have a ruin in transit, with buildings being destroyed and rebuilt in quick succession, depending on the prevailing economic interests”.

Martinho Costa’s works subsequently evolved to search for pictures from photojournalism. “Pictures that I found on news sites like Reuters, New York Times, The Guardian, Público, El País. I wanted to work with these photos on a more intimate scale so as to counter the inevitably spectacular nature of images of this kind. I wanted to work with the commonplace, the temporary nature of time and the question of it being impossible to paint history, now".
OPWAY’s support for this young painter is a continuation of a practice started in 2005 with the aim of helping to promote new values in Portuguese painting. In previous years OPWAY has sponsored exhibitions by Manuel Caeiro (2005), José Lourenço (2007) and Rui Macedo (2008).

Martinho Costa was born in 1977 in Fátima. He finished his degree in Plastic Arts – Painting – in the University of Lisbon’s Faculty of Fine Arts (Faculdade de Belas Artes) in 2002. The following year he did a Master’s in Madrid’s Complutense University in Teoría y Práctica de las Artes Plásticas Comtemporáneas. His first individual exhibition was in the Galeria EvoraArte, in Évora. He has had works displayed in several collective exhibitions in Lisbon, São João da Madeira, Madrid and Basileia.

Ajuda de Mãe - November 2008

Ajuda de Mãe is a not-for-profit private welfare institution (IPSS).
Founded in 1991 to help nurture human life, it helps to show every mother that the birth of the baby can be a factor for improving life.
The work of Ajuda de Mãe relies on a multidisciplinary team. It has signed a cooperation agreement with the Social Security Centre in Lisbon. It has formed partnerships with a number of public and private institutions in order to optimize its work.

OPWAY – Engenharia is backing this initiative through a special sponsorship arrangement.

São Bento Nights (Noites de São Bento) – 27/09/2008
 

Three days of special entertainment celebrated the relationship between Lisbon and the River Tejo.
The 8th season of the “São Bento Nights” once again involved three days of exceptional entertainment, based on the theme “Lisbon and the Tejo”
The OPWAY group was the official sponsor of the “Nights of São Bento” once more, for the 8th year in a row, through its subsidiaries OPWAY Engenharia and OPWAY Imobiliária. The event took place on September 25, 26 and 27.
This year it was promoted by the recently-formed Rua de São Bento Traders Association, and this typical part of Lisbon sparkled for three days and three nights in what has become a tradition for the thousands of people who flock to this famed event on the city’s cultural agenda.

Initially organized by an informal group of antiques traders in order to attract customers, and so stimulate business, this event quickly became a real action of cultural and commercial impetus in the area around São Bento. The shops stay open until midnight and the streets are alive with music, dancing and light.
 
» Watch video: SIC - Primeiro Jornal - 26/09/2008
» "Noites de São Bento" Blog 
   

Map of Baixa-Chiado in 1758 celebrated with a major exhibition - 19/06/2008

The OPWAY group's subsidiary, OPWAY Imobiliária, with support from OPWAY Engenharia, was one of the main sponsors of the exhibition “1758 – the Baixa – Today”, which was promoted by Lisbon City Hall to commemorate 250 years of the pilot plan of the Baixa-Chiado. This was the first instrument to integrate planning, design and urban project - a real innovative item in the history of world urban development, and one whose importance has never been given due consideration.
On display in the Pátio da Galé, on the west side of the Praça do Comércio, in Lisbon, this exhibition was open to the public until the end of October 2008. Ana Tostões and Walter Rossa were the scientific officers for this exhibition whose aim was twofold. First, it was to celebrate the pilot plan initiated in the wake of the catastrophe (earthquake, tsunami and fire) that struck in November 1755 – the plan that envisaged the renovation of the whole downtown area of Lisbon and the hill that protects it towards the west, which a century later was to be called Chiado. Second, it intended to emphasise that this plan was finally forging ahead with the regeneration of the area.
The exhibition was split into three sections: the first, necessarily somewhat condensed, consisted of uniformly composed and printed panels, with some audio-visual support; the second basically comprised originals and was the thematic kernel of the display; the third consisted of audio-visual resources which make as much use as possible of the latest technology. At the end there was an area which was meant to produce an effect of combined exaltation, synthesis and reflection.

OPWAY promotes exhibition by the painter Rui Macedo - 25/03/2008

Promoted by the OPWAY Group, which has focused particularly on supporting the work of young talents in Portuguese painting as part of its social responsibility policy, this exhibition by Rui Macedo, which was also sponsored by the D. Luís I Foundation, includes a collection of 30 pieces that recreate the work of the Italian master Giovanni Battista Piranesi (Venice, 1720-Rome, 1778).
In an exercise of appropriation that is a common trait of this artist, Rui Macedo created these “Invenzioni capricciose segundo Piranesi” from the works or fragments of works of the former Italian painter, offering us eminently contemporary pieces.
The 30 pieces which make up the collection were organised into groups of engravings, painting on paper and painting on canvas, recreating in each technique used the whole or part of the original work.
Rui Macedo was born in Évora in 1975. He got his first degree in Painting from the Faculty of Fine Arts at Lisbon University and in 1999 attended the Masters in Painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts at Lisbon University.
It was considered by specialized opinion, one of the expositions and events more relevant in cultural ambit  of 2008 - See Blog of Alexandre Pomar   

Noites de São Bento – 27/09/2007 

The theme of the 7th edition of  ‘Noites de S. Bento’, exclusively sponsored by OPCA, was ‘Lisbon and Europe’ marking the Portuguese presidency for the EEC and covering the modern interior decoration trends towards the blending of styles and eras.

This initiative, the only one of its kind in Portugal, draws antique lovers from all over the world to the Rua de S. Bento in Lisbon and is an important part of a small number of similar events which take place not only in Europe, namely Paris, Brussels and London, but worldwide.

As a result of this trend towards blending styles and eras, the mixture of antiques and modern paintings that were brought in made this an amazing event.

As in previous years, the whole of the Rua de S. Bento was decorated for the event. Historical buildings were lit up and all sorts of entertainment took place in the street and on the verandas above. Visitors could listen to Maria João Quadros singing from her veranda in the Rua de São Bento, to others singing traditional European songs or watch all sorts of musical shows and dances, all this in an effort to draw together the many different cultures.

Visitors, residents and clients received a warm welcome to this party and Viúva de Lamego, an OPWAY company, gave everyone a hand painted tile.

The aim of this event, now in its eighth year, is to put Lisbon and Portugal on the circuit for important events, attracting people from other countries namely Spain and France. Antique lovers, business men, collectors, investors or just curious people were all on the lookout for unusual and original pieces. 

OPCA sponsors the exhibition of the painter José Lourenço – 26/03/2007

OPCA, a top company in the construction and public works division, who recently celebrated 75 years of existence, sponsored an exhibition of the painter José Lourenço, in the Pavilhão de Portugal, at the Parque das Nações, in Lisbon. This building is one of OPCA’s many emblematic buildings.

The exhibition, entitled “Landscapes”, was one of the “OPCA Supports Culture Programme” sponsorships, upholding the company’s long-term policy of sponsoring and promoting young artists.

OPCA can proudly say that for its 75th anniversary commemorative programme, the company sponsored and promoted Manuel Caeiro’s work in 2006, sponsored and exhibited José Lourenço’s work, sponsored a book written about the artist and his exhibition, contributing to the establishment of a young artist.

José Lourenço who was born in Lisbon in 1975, earned an Arts degree in Painting at the Faculdade de Belas Artes da Universidade de Lisboa, and has taken part in a number of individual and collective exhibitions. For the above exhibition, he presented a collection of paintings done during his latest phase centred on the theme “architecture”, a theme he has used in his work in an abstract form.

Filipa Oliveira wrote the following about José Lourenço’s work for this exhibition: “The city, the perfect place for one to understand oneself and one’s time, is demonstrated by the artist twofold: interior/exterior, known/unknown, mysterious/fantastic”.

 OPCA sponsored the books Kungokhala and “Casas da Caparica” (Caparica houses) – 21/12/2005

“Kungokhala” is a collection of photographs, taken by Filipe Condado following a trip to northern Mozambique, reflecting life in the many villages of the region. This book can be found in many Lisbon bookshops.
 
Manuel Caeiro’s book “Casas da Caparica” (Caparica houses) contains photographs of every painting in the collection as wells as comments by a number of art critics.

Once again OPCA is actively involved in supporting Portuguese culture, in this case artists and photography maintaining company tradition in this area.

OPWAY opened the exhibition Casas da Caparica “Caparica Houses” by Manuel Caeiro – 09/11-2005

Manuel Caeiro is only interested in the world, in landscapes, for its real reason, if conceived for a pictorial reason.

If we were to look at Manuel Caeiro’s path through life, we can see that he has always centred his work around houses. The various exhibitions he has held since 1999: “Neighbourhood”, “Household Scenes”, “Dream Houses Inbox”, “Dream Houses”, all relate to proximity and affection. The dream houses he builds and revisits since 2001, depict architectural metamorphosis in that they harmonize the city with all its vital structures, simultaneously idealizing a home whose skin is constantly rethinking and renewing itself.

Following in this path of “dream houses”, Manuel Caeiro now gives us his interpretation of the little fisherman houses on the Costa da Caparica..

For most of us, these little seaside houses set in an old fishing village, are just broken down ruins. Looking at them in a different light, their colourful, broken down walls bring you images of fragile dreams, transformed by the artist into a delightful mixture of colours and lines.

The strong use of colour together with the division of objects and views, gives a kaleidoscopic effect which can be quite dizzying to the viewer.

We seem to be looking at one house, but one house that multiplies itself into a number of houses – or a never ending number of houses that become a single house?