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TEXT BY JOÃO CANDIDO GALVÃO

João Candido Galvão
April, 1993

Your installation at Clinicas Subway Station is a good reason to question the current concept of Public Art in Brazil. I am ever so glad your reference for this kind of art is neither Borba Gato, in Santo Amaro, nor the other specter extreme, the Ipiranga Independence Monument. Contrarily to most people, Denise Milan does not consider art for open spaces as a synonym for monuments, as the kind of manifestation to change landscape, as if to create a new postcard. For her, the purpose of Public Art is to alter citizens' life experiences, to interfere in physical space to change it both psychologically and socially. By mixing materials in their natural state or technology-produced, Denise adds the conflict that outgrows her work and is poured into the environment where technology is installed, reaching the spectator directly, not through aesthetic scrutiny, but rather through a vital energy channel.