Associação Cultural Videobrasil

Angela Detanico (Caxias do Sul, Brazil, 1974) and Rafael Lain (Caxias do Sul, Brazil, 1973). A varied formation, professional experiences that do not fit in a single circuit and an unquiet view of the communicational and artistic processes that put together text and image are the hallmarks of the artistic trajectory of Angela Detanico and Rafael Lain.

Rafael Lain’s drawing abilities lead him to Caxias do Sul advertising offices and afterwards to the design department of a footwear industry, where he gets in touch with Neville Brody’s experimental designer and other authors through publications and alternative magazines. At this time he begins to produce graphic pieces for a small nightclub in town, an ambience tuned to pop culture and the musical universe of the early 90’s.

In 1994, Lain moves to São Paulo where he begins to work at MTV Brasil with Jimmy Leroy. Later, they become partners in Burritos do Brasil, a design office whose hallmark is the exploration of new possibilities of the visual language within the advertisement circuit.

In 1996, Angela Detanico finishes her studies in Caxias and also joins Burritos’ staff. The office soon gains ground and begins to work for big companies such as Renault, Pepsi and Adidas, and develops the visual identity of Canal Brasil, the first cable channel dedicated exclusively to Brazilian cinema.

In spite of Burritos’ good repercussion, the advertisement market’s natural limitations lead the pair to a new experience. In 1998, they found Fêmur, a design office with a well-marked artistic and experimental character, focused on the cultural market.

During this period, Detanico studies for her Master´s degree in Discourse Analysis at PUC (an university from São Paulo). Her research focuses on the relations of signification between image and text, what in a way leads to passages between image, sound and graphic universe that are developed in many works, especially in a series of performances played with Objeto Amarelo, between 2001 and 2003.

This kind of work shows a tendency towards a kind of experimentation that focuses on the mixture of techniques, supports, possibilities of exposition and especially the dialogue between the contemporary art circuit and graphic design.

During this period, they also work with Associação Cultural Videobrasil as members of the council and at the development of the visual identity of the 13th and 14th Videobrasil International Electronic Art Festival.

In 2001, aiming to expand their field of activity, renew their repertory and exchange information, they take part in a workshop in New York with the staff of Tomato, one of the most important offices of design and typographical fonts development. 

Being invited to an artistic residency at Palais de Tokio, in Paris, they develop the Fonte/Delta project. The project was selected, what allowed an eight-month residency in Paris and the possibility to research and develop works in that place. During the residency, they produce a workshop in Vietnam, along the river Mekong. The experience generates the video Flatland, nominated to Nam June Paik Awards 2004, in Germany.

Back to Brazil, they take part in an exposition curated by Lisete Lagnado at Galeria Vermelho. They show Pilha, an artistic instalment in which heaps of objects are related to alphabet letters.

This year they receive an invitation to take part in the 26th Bienal Internacional de São Paulo and produce an exhibition on Brazilian design at Femme de Buisson’s contemporary art centre, in Paris. The exposition occupies all the six hundred square metres of the place, divided in seven rooms, apart from a video exhibition. The main focus is on the visual production of young Brazilian graphic designers, emphasizing the relations between graphic design and other fields of contemporary culture like fashion, skateboarding, hip hop culture and pop music.

Their disturbing work is also in the Brazilian representation at the Venice Biennial of Architecture this year. The work is the font Utopia, which portrays Brazilian Modernism.

Next year they will realize their first individual exposition at Galeria Vermelho.