Zé Lino [ Copan Projects] is about, within, and without the Copan building in São Paulo , Brazil . Located at the heart of one of the world's megacities, the Copan was built between 1951 and 1966 and has since achieved the status of a masterwork of Modern urbanism by Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer. For CASA Vertigo we have selected a series of pieces that challenge notions of traditional representation in architecture. AS MANY DESIRES, a collaboration between the artists and the community, generated 300 postcards where the inhabitants are portrayed simultaneously with the building. In ZONE ONE - COPAN , a walkthrough in undisclosed spaces reveals the building's entrails. 24 HOURS COPAN recorded one day in the life of this urban infrastructure. FACE & BACK is a juxtaposition of the disparate, divergent north and south façades of the building. A series of photographs by Arni Haraldsson further exposes the contradictions of the architecture. But perhaps the project that most synthesizes our experience is the projection ZÉ LINO. José Lino, a self-employed worker of the Copan for more than 40 years, cleans the glass façade of one of the apartments, located in the highest floor.

Zé Lino [ Copan Projects] moves away from the artist's studio, the art institution, the architect's office, or the photographer's studio into the city and connects directly with the public space and the architecture. The alteration of the everyday routine through observation, critique and celebration, indicates the possibilities of new meanings, where the artist/architect devise a critical positioning by reading into an existing condition, responding to a found situation.

Eduardo Aquino, Karen Shanski and Arni Haraldsson