My art was developed towards an increasing participation, and the mistrust in the gallery and museum business,” the Brazilian artist Hélio Oiticica wrote in a letter to an art critic in 1969. This disinterest in institutional art settings, coupled with the experiential, immersive nature of much of Oiticica’s work, makes him a difficult artist to exhibit. Perhaps this is why “Hélio Oiticica: To Organize Delirium,” on view now at the Art Institute of Chicago, is the first full-scale retrospective of the artist in the United States.
It’s easy to see why Oiticica soured on museum settings. In a 1965 journal entry, he elaborates on his evolving views on exhibitions: “Here is the key to what I will call ‘environmental art,’” he writes, “the eternally mobile, the transformable, which is structured by both the action of the spectator and that which is static,” he writes. “A pavilion, one of those used these days for industrial exhibitions (how more interesting they are than anaemic little art shows!), would be ideal for such a purpose—it would be an opportunity for a truly efficient experience with the people, throwing them into the creative participatory notion, away from the ‘elite exhibitions’ so fashionable today.”
Eden and Tropicália, his most iconic works, appear particularly lackluster in the Art Institute. Though viewers are encouraged to take off their shoes and enter the islandlike environments, the artificial lighting and institutional setting did little to encourage any kind of interaction when I was there on a busy Sunday. Sand covers the floor of both pieces, which are positioned side by side. Eden is reminiscent of a favela, full of tents and bright, colorful makeshift structures; cushions, books, and magazines are scattered throughout. Yet no one seemed to be lying around or reading any of the material. “Creleisure,” another term Oiticica coined, suggests that leisure is essential to creativity—by encouraging viewers to hang out in his installations, he hoped to share with them the joy of creating.
“Hélio Oiticica: To Organize Delirium”
At the Art Institute, PN27 is installed in its own room, far from any natural lighting. Oiticica held high the concept of vivências, or lived experiences, in which one’s presence and pure reactions were part and parcel of the art. With many of his pieces, Oiticica didn’t consider a work finished until someone was interacting with it: a parangolé when it’s worn, an installation when it’s occupied. What would he have made of “To Organize Delirium,” believing as he did that “any experiment in a formal gallery would be a turn back?” Still, though the exhibit may not give you a “suprasensorial” experience, it will expose you to one of the 20th century’s most brilliant innovators. v
Through 5/7: Sun–Wed 10:30 AM–5 PM, Thu 10:30 AM–8 PM, Fri-Sat 10:30 AM–5 PM Art Institute of Chicago 312-443-3600artinstituteofchicago.org $25, $19 students, seniors ($5 discount for Chicago residents), free kids under 14; free for Illinois residents Thursdays 5-8 PM
