CAN YOU TELL ME A SECRET?
interactive public art
SÃO PAULO, BRASIL, 2016
“Can You Tell Me a Secret?” is a set of interactive furniture created as temporary public art for URBE 2016. Echoing the urban masses, it is composed of 5 wooden benches located in the middle of the Coronel Fernando Prestes Square in the Bom Retiro neighborhood, a stronghold of immigrants in the city of São Paulo. A sixth element in the form of a phone booth contains an old-style telephone and displays the phrase “Can You Tell Me a Secret?”.
It invites passers-by to come in and share their stories, which are then recorded and played back randomly inside the furniture via speakers. The color of the furniture was derived from a process of mixing the flags of the area’s immigrants, like South Korea, Greece, Bolivia, Italy and Haiti.
LED lights mounted inside them amplify and transmit the experience of the work to the environs, creating a dreamlike landscape in this energized public square
At night the pieces become light sculptures, vibrating and changing colors in warm tones which reflect the volume levels of the various audio recordings as they are played back.
