Degradê SP

São Paulo, 2004

The canvas printed with Degradê SP covered the main entrance at Paço das Artes, leaving nothing but a narrow side passage through the garden for the viewers’ access. The building’s structure also frames this new surface, being filled by that color field that suddenly belongs to the place. During the day, sunlight would pass through it, creating a blue-atmosphere antechamber between the canvas and the main entrance. At night, it worked as a backlit panel at the end of the access stairs.

I thought of this luminous gradient as a reduction of the experience with São Paulo’s dry, dirty sky, in order to recall the strong impression the lead-gray horizon dissolving into luminous blue imprinted on me on the most polluted days.