The Brazilian participationist vanguard (1954-1973)

Abstract

The theoretical propositions of the Brazilian artist Hélio Oiticica seem to be the opposite of those proposed by the critic and poet Ferreira Gullar. It seems to reveal an opposition between an artistic avant-garde and an engaged art. However, both the Oiticicas formulation of a Brazilian avant-garde and the Gullars ideas related to the social and political engagement of the artist reveal similar points. In the text that follows, we will indicate some convergences in the ways that Hélio Oiticica and Ferreira Gullar thought the Brazilian avant-garde, through the transformations in the art system specially in the artwork (the open work) and in the spectators reception (participation) , and their concerns about the political engagement of the artists. Our claim is that both Oiticicas poetics and Gullars criticism have aesthetical concepts, such as the open work and the spectators participation, linked with political and social issues. We will also rise questions about the labels of vanguardist and engaged artist applied to Oiticica and Gullar respectively. Finally, this work aims at analyse criticaly the value and the characteristics of an artistic avant-garde out of the big centres of the international art.