The emblematic collection of Flemish art of the Sacred Art Museum of Funchal is a living testimony of the artistic orders made during the golden age of sugar in Madeira, between the 15th and 16th centuries.
"The Sugar Factory by Filipa Venâncio. Testimonies of an Industry", curated by Martinho Mendes and carried out under the Programme of the International Day of Museums 2018, aimed to broaden the understanding of the history of sugar in the Archipelago, highlighting other evidences of a production that remained active far beyond the golden age. The body of work on display was presented for the first time in 2008, in Quinta Palmeira, based on the plastic research carried out by the artist on the Harvey mill at the time of the celebration of the centenary of this industrial machine, removed from its original functioning at the Hinton Factory.
The remounting of the exhibition, ten years later, was expanded through the suggested dialogues with the presentation of an unprecedented and diversified set of archival documents from various sources, which enhanced the understanding of the history of sugar production in the 20th and 21st centuries.
At the same time, the exhibition presented itself as a globalizing project, promoting new approaches and connections, where the main conceptual and thematic interests, followed by Filipa Venâncio over the course of his career were gathered and made available to a wide set of publics of the Museum, as a universe to be integrated into the paths of contemporary painting.