Hélio Oiticica & Neville D’Almeida: Cosmococa/CC2 Onobject
On View
On the 50th anniversary of their creation, TMR presents the LA debut of one of Hélio Oiticica & Neville D’Almeida’s seminal Cosmococas. The immersive installation will be accompanied by an evolving program inspired by the artists’ commitment to experimentation.
About the Exhibition.
Born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Hélio Oiticica (1937-1980) is one of the most consequential artists of the post-war period. A prolific and boundlessly imaginative thinker, writer, and maker, Oiticica pushed the boundaries of abstraction, sculpture, film, performance, and installation—expanding the ways viewers encountered and experienced his works as he challenged the divide between art and life. Forging a practice rooted in experimentation and collaboration, Oiticica questioned established social, cultural, and institutional structures; striving to instigate new human experiences.
While living in New York in the 1970’s, Oiticica embedded himself in the underground culture scene where he met Brazilian filmmaker Neville D’Almeida. D’Almeida’s radically avant-garde films were invested in re-shaping the realm of the cinematic. Together they created a series of ‘supra-sensorial’ environments that they titled Bloco-Experienciâs in COSMOCOCA – programa in progress (Block-Experiments in COSMOCOCA—program in progress). Numbered CC1 to CC9, the Cosmococas were plans for complex environmental installations that incorporated projections, sound, mattresses, sand, balloons, foam shapes, and other elements. Images of album covers, newspaper clippings, and pop culture icons appeared in the projected imagery often stratified under white pigment drawings the artists made using cocaine as a raw material. These explorations of the sensorial shift perceptions of time and space and are in dialogue with Oiticica’s “quasi-cinemas” which mobilized sound, images, and color to engage viewers holistically in ways conventional cinema could not.
In the spirit of making art accessible, Oiticica and D’Almeida created public and private versions of the Cosmococas so that they could exist in both institutional and domestic settings. TMR will present the public version of CC2. Titled CC2/Onobject, the installation features a 30 x 30-foot room with a custom designed foam floor. On the walls projected slideshows of Yoko Ono’s book Grapefruit will envelop viewers accompanied by a soundtrack of Ono’s Plastic Ono Band music. A group of foam sculptural objects in primary colors are sited in the room—encouraging visitors to engage their sense of touch as they play with them.
Informed by Oiticica and D’Almeida’s concept of a program in process, the remaining space in the gallery will be empty when the exhibition opens. Throughout its duration, a series of interventions, programs, and events will expand the exhibition—morphing and evolving through the responses of artists and other cultural makers who will activate the space. The hope is that this presentation will embody the boldly experimental approach of the Cosmococas by shaping the exhibition structure itself—giving way to an “open work” that is in conversation with both Oititica and D’Almeida’s legacies and the local communities of Los Angeles.
About the Artists.
Hélio Oiticica (1937 – 1980) is widely regarded as one of Brazil’s leading artists of the twentieth century and a touchstone for much contemporary art made since the 1960’s, primarily through his freewheeling, participatory works of art, performative environments, avant-garde films and abstract paintings. Oiticica was a key member of the historic Rio de Janeiro-based Grupo Frente (1954-56), his radical play with geometric form and vibrant colors transcending the minimal lines of European constructivism and imbuing his work with an exuberant rhythm that resonated with the avant-garde music and poetry of his native Brazil. In the late 1950’s, Oiticica would go on to become a leading figure of Brazilian Neo-Concretism (1959-61) that included other ground breaking artists such as Lygia Clark, Lygia Pape and the poet Ferreira Gullar, ultimately giving rise to the artistic movement known as Tropicalismo, named for a work of Oiticica’s from 1967. Increasingly, Oiticica became a countercultural figure and underground hero, foregrounding bodily interaction with spatial and environmental concerns over pure aesthetics. This generous and generative practice would become highly influential for subsequent generations of artists, especially his Parangolés or ‘habitable paintings’ and all-encompassing series of installations, known variously as Núcleos (ceiling-hung geometric panels forming gradual chromatic experiences) and Propositions or Penetrables (labyrinth-like architectural environments made of sand and semi-permeable cabins). This supra-sensorial approach continued until his untimely death in 1980 at the age of 42.
Neville D’Almeida (b. 1941) is one of Brazil’s most important avant-garde filmmakers. After studying theater a the Teatro Universitário de Minas Gerais, her participated in the Centro de Estudos Cinematográficos and the Centro Mineiro Experimental when he began his career as a filmmaker. Some of his transgressive films were censored or banned by the Brazilian military dictatorship. His 1978 film, Lady on the Bus is one of the highest grossing films in Brazil’s cinematic history. He currently lives and works in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Credits
Hélio Oiticica and Neville D’Almeida: Cosmococa/CC2 Onobject is organized by The Mistake Room (TMR) and curated by César García-Alvarez, TMR Executive & Artistic Director.
TMR’s programs are made possible with the support of its Board of Directors, Big Mistake Patron Group, International Council, and Contemporary Council.
Support for this exhibition is provided by an anonymous donor.
Major support for the accompanying program of this exhibition is provided by Allison and Larry Berg; Anita Blanchard; and Graham Steele and Ulysses de Santi.
Additional support for the accompanying program of this exhibition is provided by Analia Saban.
TMR’s 2024 program is supported by TMR’s 10 Year Anniversary Circle: Diane Allen, Kim Allen-Niesen, Gisela Colón, Karla Harwich, Paul Judelson, Noel Kirnon, Aurelian Lis & Simone Kiri, Carlos Marsano, Maureen Paley, Jessica Park, Juan Santiago Rodriguez, and Byoungho Son.
Special thanks to Marathon Foam Supplies, Guerra Castro Designs, Wilson Cetina Group, Media Art Services, and Lisson Gallery.
Image Credit: Hélio Oititica and Neville D’Almeida, CC2 Onobject, 1973/2005. Photo Credit: Cesar Oititica Filho.