![]() By September 1971, he had a proposal for the work containing four Penetrables on two stories, with mazes and gardens, spaces for dancing, including a yellow room for swing dancing, and built-in spaces for performances. Oiticica was awarded a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship in 1970, thus bringing him to New York where the idea for Subterranean Tropicália Projects percolated as he dreamt of realizing a major public installation in Central Park. This early maquette is on view at 508 West 24th Street, alongside other models for large-scale yet unrealized projects - Subterranean Tropicália Projects (1971) and Ready Constructible 1 (1978). Created in 1961, it is a maquette for an unrealized public garden, composed of several Penetrables meant to resemble a labyrinth or archeological site, as well as a theater to be controlled by the participant, and a set of stacked boxes which the visitor physically excavates, unveiling a buried poem as each layer is removed. The work’s title comes from a spiral nebula discovered in the 17th century by a Polish astronomer who believed it looked like two canines. While Tropicália signifies his first realized architectural project, Hunting Dogs Project (Projeto cães de caça) set precedents for much of Oiticica’s most important work - collaboration, individual contemplation, experiential action, and social interaction - and marks his first invention of a social place and inhabitable site. The other two editions (in the edition of three), are held in the permanent collections of the Tate Modern, London, and Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid. Widely regarded as the artist’s most important work, combining the many dimensions he explores throughout his practice, Tropicália has been included in over twenty major museum exhibitions of the artist’s work since its creation. Tropicália’s sharp characterization of Brazil’s conflicted contemporary identity inspired the title of Caetano Veloso’s popular anthem against Brazil’s dictatorship, but also gave rise to a larger cultural movement addressing the country’s changing dynamics titled Tropicalismo. Vibrantly colored macaws occupy another structure and objects scattered throughout - bricks, metal signs and cardboard - display handwritten poems by Roberta Salgado. These structures are surrounded entirely by sand and gravel pathways which circle the island-like construction. ![]() ![]() PN3 (Imagetical) incorporates fabric coverings and patterns in its larger construction, which weaves around until the visitor confronts the black and white television emitting continuous images and sounds from local stations. PN2 (Purity is a Myth) is the smaller closet-like structure of the two, composed of wood panels, each painted a different color, with the phrase ‘Purity is a myth’ (‘a pureza é um mito’) printed in Portuguese on the inside. It is composed of two Penetrables, small wooden shed-like structures referencing Brazil’s favela shantytowns, arranged to form a maze and intended to be entered and explored. In this work, Oiticica addresses the clichés of the country’s association with a tropical paradise, including bright colors, sand, and exotic birds and flowers. Conceived in late 1966 and created in 1967, Tropicália was the first architecturally scaled installation that the artist realized, and the first in a series of works that would portray, and critique, his native country of Brazil. On view at 504 West 24th Street is Oiticica’s ground breaking, large-scale installation Tropicália (1966-67). ![]() This evolution underlines his multidimensional development and ultimately the cosmological ideas that guided his approach to art and life. Oiticica was a prolific and inquisitive thinker in his short lifetime, and the works featured here include examples of his exploration and expansion of formal artistic modes, and layered approach, pushing the boundaries of the possibilities of color and structure, as well as representations of his investigation into experiential, environmental art and interactive installation.
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