Success story: Denise Milan

This article is part of an in depth special report on the Lebanese in Brazil. Read more stories as they’re published here, or pick up July’s issue at newsstands in Lebanon. From Denise Milan’s 12th floor studio, São Paulo stretches for miles in every direction. The sprawling metropolis both inspires and frustrates her — its heart pulses with energy, but not always the constructive kind. The artist works with natural resources to help bring out what she calls the ‘language of stones’ — the natural balance in the universe. With her art, Milan seeks to reconcile people to their place through the acceptance of wider powers at force in nature — a message she believes is key for migrant communities. “Through these structures I can reconnect people to their origins because the people of the diaspora are cut from their origins, they left them bleeding and crying. It was not that