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On June 26, from 7 PM to 10 PM, Silvia Cintra + Box 4 will open “Ano luz” (Light Year), a new solo exhibition by Detanico Lain in partnership with Galeria Vermelho. The exhibition features five series in which the duo adopts language as both the subject and object of their work. The pieces, developed using different techniques, demonstrate the poetic dimension and diversity of the duo’s creative process, bringing to the public a new universe where codes of representation and organization are re-examined.

One of the highlights is the series O dia mais curto, o dia mais longo (The Shortest Day, The Longest Day), in which Detanico and Lain represent the winter and summer solstices in different locations. Here we see representations of light and shadow incident on Ushuaia on these two occasions during all 24 hours of each day, depicted with their mural paintings featuring 24 bands of varying intensities, from black to white. On the opposite wall, we find the series Nuvens (Clouds) (2022), a set of 9 images of white clouds on a blue background. From a distance, visitors can, like in a game, look for shapes in the clouds, but upon approaching, they see that the clouds are actually made of letters that form words. The words, scattered across the patches, also require some investigation to reveal the word that is there.

Their works reflect the fascination they share with the human capacity to contemplate the world around and beyond them. Imbued with scientific, mathematical, and literary references, their works apply themes of time, space, memory, and the infinite beyond. Artists Angela Detanico and Rafael Lain use Helvetica Concentrated — a writing system they created in 2004, in collaboration with Jiří Skála, which transforms each character of the 1957 Helvetica font into a dot corresponding to its mass — in two of their series. In the series Nome das Estrelas (Name of the Stars), they use this system to transcribe the names of the 287 stars listed in the Yale University Observatory’s Bright Star Catalogue. By superimposing the dot-shaped letters, Detanico Lain create images that represent the vibration of starlight: the more extensive the

they generate darker images. The duo also employs Helvetica Concentrated in their series, Corpos Celestes (Celestial Bodies), launched in 2024 at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, on the occasion of the artists’ nomination for the Prix Marcel Duchamp. This series celebrates 20 years of the writing system, deepening the exploration of the relationship between language, image, and the cosmos through the three-dimensionalization of this concept, where the works, suspended from the ceiling, orbit the gallery space.

Following the artists’ approach to developing a series of writing systems, the exhibition includes a work from the Radiante (Radiant) series, in which the word “sun” is written in different languages, according to a graphic that simulates sunbeams. For each quadrant of this graphic, the artists assign a letter. Each module/letter is reproduced in gold-leafed wood. In the case of the exhibited piece, Nar is the Mongolian word for sun.

Finally, the work Timesquare fascinates us with its unusual representation of time. In it, four clocks are arranged so that their hands align to form a square. This creation goes beyond simply marking the hours; it explores the intersection between chronological time and geometric form, inviting the observer to reflect on how we perceive and measure time. By transforming the fluidity of the hands into a static figure, the work plays with our expectations and offers a new perspective on the passage of time.

We thank Galeria Vermelho for their partnership in this exhibition and Gabriel Zimbardi for his intellectual property contribution, regarding the texts about the artist duo Detanico Lain.