Canta Forte/Alto (2021) — Felippe Moraes

Felippe Moraes
Canta Forte/Alto, 2021
Letreiro em néon
Neon sign
Installation presented at Biblioteca Mário de Andrade, São Paulo
Museu de Arte do Rio collection

The work Canta Forte/Alto (Sing Loud/Sing Strong, 2021), by Felippe Moraes, consists of a neon sign that transforms a line from the samba “Canta, canta, minha gente,” by Martinho da Vila, into a luminous sculpture. The piece was first installed at Biblioteca Mário de Andrade, in downtown São Paulo, occupying urban space with a short, direct phrase charged with cultural force during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The work first appeared within the context of the solo project Samba da Luz, carried out by Moraes during the pandemic, in 2021. In this project, the artist investigated the presence of samba as a collective language and cultural memory through phrases drawn from the repertoire of Brazilian music, converted into luminous inscriptions.

The phrase “Canta Forte/Alto” carries a poetic drive that calls the reader to action. Appearing as a luminous sign, the line ceases to exist only as part of a song in the collective imagination and comes to occupy physical space as image and material presence, altering both the landscape and the memory of the song.

The work was later presented in other contexts, such as the Festival SESC de Inverno, in 2025, at Parque Municipal de Itaipava, amid the audience attending the concerts — shifting the sign from its original monumental condition into direct coexistence with the collective body the song evokes.

For the touring run of the solo exhibition Solfejo, the piece also gained a smaller-scale version, closer to human measure, physically bringing the work nearer to the viewer and revisiting, in another key, the relationship between the memory of a song and the experience of space that runs through the entire Samba Exaltação series.

Neon sign "Canta Forte/Alto" (Sing Loud/Sing Strong), work by Felippe Moraes installed at Biblioteca Mário de Andrade, São Paulo

Selected Exhibitions

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