Using colors and materials to invoke the memory of the site's history as an industrial and fishing hub, the multi-layered three-dimensional net floats over Cidade Salvador Plaza. It is credited with being the first permanent and monumental public sculpture to use a set of membranes that are completely soft and flexible, moving fluidly in the wind. The work casts cinematic shadow drawings onto the floor, further highlighting the “wind choreography”. The city has made the sculpture its graphic symbol and residents give different interpretations of the work, from fishing nets, ships and masts from Portuguese maritime history, the red and white striped chimneys of the region's industrial past, Portuguese lace, sea creatures and ripples in the water.
Three steel poles, 25 to 50 meters high, are painted white with red stripes to reference nearby chimneys and lighthouses. The posts support a 20-ton steel ring, from which the one-ton net is suspended. The ring greets the ocean at a slope, ranging from 13.5 meters above ground at the lowest point to 27 meters at the highest point. The net is made up of 36 individual mesh sections in different densities, hand joined on all sides in a multi-layered fashion.
Comments