Prime Minister's Office of Spain

04/09/2021 | Press release | Archived content

Minister for Culture and Sport highlights 'fruitful and intense' collaboration with Portugal in field of culture

The reopening of the museum a few days ago was described by José Manuel Rodríguez Uribes as a source of great joy and grounds for celebration 'in times that experts are beginning to describe as post-pandemic'.

Fruitful collaboration

José Manuel Rodríguez Uribes also highlighted in his speech that the collaboration between Spain and Portugal 'has always been fruitful and intense', while indicating 'the alignment between the recovery plans 'proposed by President of the Government Sánchez and Prime Minister Costa in the negotiations of the European Recovery Fund.

As regards institutional collaboration in the field of culture, the Minister for Culture and Sport underlined that 'we have coordinated the different activities for the commemoration of the 5th Centenary of the first circumnavigation of the globe by Magallanes and Elcano', and highlighted the cultural cooperation programme entitled 'Mostra Espanha' and the Portuguese-Spanish Art and Culture Award.

He also expressed his wish to be able to 'shore up new channels for cooperation, from the organisation of exhibitions to significant exchanges and projects, including regarding books, the audio-visual sector and the rest of the cultural industries'. And he highlighted the 'Spain, European Audio-visual Hub' Plan, framing it within a strategic field for both countries.

The Minister for Culture and Sport of Spain recalled the measures adopted by Spain to protect the sector in times of pandemic and its commitment to open up culture following the first state of emergency, 'always in line with the recommendations of the health authorities and the protocols'.

He highlighted that, for the first time in our country, 'extraordinary access has been given to unemployment benefits for cultural workers depending on the intermittency of their work', the accumulation of tax and financing measures, and the approval of new rules designed for the most prejudiced professional groups.

He also referred to the development of the Artist's Statute. 'We have made significant developments, approving an historical claim by the sector, which is the compatibility of retirement pensions with the receipt of income from intellectual property rights', without forgetting 'extraordinary access to unemployment benefits for public performance artists'.

'Ídolos. Miradas milenarias'

The exhibition entitled 'Ídolos.Miradas milenarias' was organised by the Archaeological Museum of Alicante and the Regional Archaeological Museum of Madrid, and gathers together 226 items from more than 22 museums across Spain and Portugal. A collection of anthropomorphous images that are interpreted in reference to the Great Eastern Mother Goddess and which brings the visitor closer to the societies generated and which were used by them to maintain the social order, invoking their descent and ancestry

Non official translation