Anexperimentalcity

In the 1970s, a new generation of visual artists began developing works whose radical nature pushed them toward experimenting with new media and actions. The performative character of many of these works found acceptance within institutions just as much as it faced the risk of being carried out directly on the street. The risk came from confronting the security forces of the civilian-military governments of the period.

Also in 1970, two young artists who would become major names on the national scene created works whose impact became historic. Cildo Meireles, from Brasília, began his series called “insertions into ideological circuits,” that is, using common media of collective circulation throughout the city — such as newspaper classified ads, Coca-Cola glass bottles, and banknotes — to insert so-called “subversive” messages about Brazil's political moment. The circulation of these items caused an uproar among the authorities at the time.

Image description: The image shows an old banknote from the Banco Central do Brasil, with a value of 1 Cruzeiro. The spatial layout runs from left to right, from foreground to background. On the left side, there is a green geometric pattern with the number "1" inside a circle. In the center is the text "BANCO CENTRAL DO BRASIL" in larger letters. Below it, there is a circular image of a woman with long hair, wearing a crown of stars. The text "UM CRUZEIRO" appears below this image. On the right, there is a numeric symbol "1" inside a green circle. The note has a serial number "B16330 009033" beneath the image of the woman.

But nothing was as impactful as the work of the Portuguese artist based in Rio de Janeiro, Artur Barrio. He developed a series of objects titled "bloodied bundles." The artist created a tangle of organic materials and waste that simulated a kind of abandoned body. His strategy was to leave these "bundles" in public places in Rio de Janeiro such as Lagoa Marapendi, in Barra da Tijuca, Copacabana, Ipanema, Avenida Niemeyer, or Jacarepaguá. Several times the Military Police were called in to investigate such objects, which simulated the bodies tortured and murdered during that period.

Image description: This is a black-and-white photograph. In the image, we see two people in an outdoor setting. The person on the left is lying on the ground, covered by a white sheet. The other person is standing, bent over them, with their arms crossed over the body of the person lying down. Both are on a paved area surrounded by large round stones. In the background, there is a line of trees and a concrete structure with vertical columns.

Following the events happening in the outdoor area of the MAM during that period, Luiz Otávio Pimentel and Flamarion, two names who were part of the city's counterculture scene, held in July 1970 the event called Orgamurbana, with works by Hélio Oiticica, Carlos Vergara, Antonio Manuel, Torquato Neto, Décio Pignatari, fire breathers, and the percussion of a recent arrival in the city: Naná Vasconcelos. Then, in 1972, it was Vergara's own turn to use the MAM to hold the collective event Ex-posição, whose idea was to bring together artists from different fields, such as Oiticica, Waly Salomão, Chacal, Anna Bela Geiger, Ivan Cardoso, Rubens Gerchman, among others.

Image description: The image is a black-and-white engraving. On the left, there is a parrot with detailed feathers and a flowering branch. In the center, an open hand holds an island with palm trees and a small distant island. On the right, another parrot is shown in a position similar to the first. The background features a clear sky and a coastal landscape. At the bottom of the image, there is text in Portuguese that reads: "I know Rio de Janeiro like the palm of my hand, whose lines I do not know."

It was in 1975, however, that the idea of a norm-transgressing art gained strength and space when the Experimental Area was inaugurated at MAM. A mobile space within the museum, intended to house a program of solo exhibitions (forty in total) by artists from different periods (with an emphasis on younger ones) whose works escaped the traditional or prevailing formats of the time and could also be seen as “avant-garde.” With a strong appeal to sculpture, objects, and videos, the room's exhibition program lasted until 1978, when the museum's tragic fire occurred. Names that are important today passed through there, such as Tunga, Lygia Pape (the most experienced of the group), Cildo Meireles, Waltércio Caldas, Fernando Cochiarale, Paulo Herkenhoff (these last two ended up becoming important Rio de Janeiro critics and curators), Sônia Andrade, Letícia Parente, Ivens Machado, Carlos Zilio, Umberto Costa Barros, Luiz Alphonsus, among others.

Image description: The image is a black and white photograph. On the left side, there is a panel with several illustrations of human faces. On the right, a person is sitting, holding an open laptop. In the background, there is a wall with more illustrations of human faces. The person is looking at the laptop, and in front of them, there is a board with a geometric figure.