Inside the labyrinth: Hélio Oiticica and the challenge of the "public" in Brazil

Abstract

The passage from the plane to space, which has taken place in Brazilian art since the late 1950s, is unfolded in environmental works that incorporate Dadaist and Surrealist elements to the original constructive matrix, in the period known as “counterculture”. In Brazil, unlike what happened in the United States, this process did not unfold in a affirmation of the public sphere, seeking, on the othere hand, a maximization of the marginal spaces, such as vacant lots. Thus, paradoxically, when they decide to act in urban and public space, artists of constructive origin, such as Hélio Oiticica, end up creating subjective refuges within it, reminiscent of the metaphorical image of the labyrinth. Important consequences of this process can later be found in the works of artists such as Cildo Meireles and Nuno Ramos.