A 45-metre steel ring weighing 20 tonnes hangs on a slant here, held high by three steel masts. This is She Changes, Janet Echelman’s first permanent public artwork, made for Porto and Matosinhos in 2005. Locals call it the anémona—the anemone—and the nickname fits its floating, open form.
While you are stopped safely on the pavement, trace the cables from the poles into the net. The supports rise between 25 and 50 metres and deliberately echo the chimneys and lighthouses of this coastal-industrial area. Beneath the ring, 36 separately woven pieces of mesh create changes in density and shape.
That mesh recalls Matosinhos’s fishing community, while its UV-resistant TENARA architectural fibre is made from PTFE. The whole work turns maritime work into something immense and airy: heavy engineering carrying a textile-like skin. Its net was taken down for repairs in October 2020, then put back in place with replacement netting in April 2021.
She Changes also received a public-art recognition in 2005 and an architectural-textiles award the following year. Stay with it for a moment; the angled circle makes the structure feel less like a monument than a vast net caught in the wind.
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