
Angela Detanico and Rafael Lain, in the running for the 2024 Marcel Duchamp Prize
Between semiology, design, and contemporary art, former Villa Kujoyama laureates Angela Detanico and Rafael Lain create a multidisciplinary body of work that spans multimedia, writing, music, and dance. Driven by a desire for experimentation, they conduct research that leads to remarkable creations, questioning language. They are currently nominated for the 2024 Marcel Duchamp Prize and are exhibiting their work at the Centre Pompidou until January 6.
Updated on 24/10/2024
5 min
Contemporary artists Angela Detanico and Rafael Lain have been working together for over 20 years. Born in 1974 in Caxias do Sul, Brazil, Angela Detanico initially studied linguistics and semiology. Rafael Lain, born in 1973 in the same city as his collaborator, pursued a career in graphic design and typography. Early in their careers, they distinguished themselves as designers and later settled in São Paulo in the mid-1990s. As they developed their multimedia installation work, they chose to explore signs, meaning, and typography as spaces and materials for experimentation. Through their collaboration, they quickly became key figures on the international art scene.
Starting in 2001, they became integral to numerous group exhibitions, including São ou Não São Gravuras? (2001) at the MAM in São Paulo and Graphic Shows Brazil (2002) at the Ginza Graphic Gallery in Tokyo. The following year, they were residents at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, where they organized the group exhibition OO: An Exhibition That Grows from the Middle (2002-2003). They also stood out for their ability to tackle multiple disciplines simultaneously. During a residency at the Centre National de la Danse from 2004 to 2005, they conducted research on electronic music and contemporary dance.
Angela Detanico and Rafael Lain create sound installations, video projections, as well as wall and spatial installations to explore visual communication. Grounded in semiology, their work diverts the codes of graphic design to invent new typographies. In these works, they replace traditional alphabet letters with everyday shapes and stage them in exhibition spaces to give them a unique materiality. Through their creations, they place language at the center of their reflection, while questioning its role in society. This observation reveals language as both a communication tool and a reflection of many cultures.
The two artists have created notable works such as Braille Ligado and Star Names, which were exhibited at the 2007 Venice Biennale. The former is a neon wall installation reproducing Braille characters, while the latter showcases the conversion of Helvetica letters into single-sized dots. Braille Ligado is a neon wall installation representing connected Braille characters (linked dots). Today, Angela Detanico and Rafael Lain’s work is represented by the Galerie Martine Aboucaya in Paris, LMNO in Brussels, and Galeria Vera Cortês in Lisbon.
In 2017, Angela Detanico and Rafael Lain were residents at Villa Kujoyama, where they developed a new chapter in their work on letters. Nominated for the 24th edition of the Marcel Duchamp Prize in 2024, they are exhibiting their work at the Centre Pompidou alongside Abdelkader Benchamma, Gaëlle Choisne, and Noémie Goudal starting October 2, 2024.
In search of unprecedented materiality, they present a three-part installation that brings together the main axes of their artistic research: writing and the cosmos. In this work, they bring together distant images, using telescope photographs from billions of years ago alongside springtime views of blooming fields.
- 1996
1996
Angela Detanico and Rafael Lain began their collaboration.
- 2007
2007
They exhibited their works "Braille Ligado" and "Star Names" at the Venice Biennale.
- 2017
2017
They completed a residency at Villa Kujoyama in Kyoto.
- 2024
2024
Angela Detanico and Rafael Lain are nominated for the Marcel Duchamp Prize.

Villa Kujoyama is an artistic institution within the cultural cooperation network of the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs. It operates under the Institut français of Japan, in coordination with the Institut français, and benefits from the support of the Bettencourt Schueller Foundation, its main patron.
2024 marks the first 10 years of craft residencies at Villa Kujoyama, initiated thanks to the support of the Bettencourt Schueller Foundation.