“In his Parangolés series (1964–79) Oiticica reached a crucial stage in his investigation of the embodiment of colour. Parangolés* are capes or habitable paintings that were designed to be worn while dancing to the rhythms of samba. HO is constructed like a collage where the director Ivan Cardoso presents original footage of Oiticica working with the Parangolés in the 1960s. Some of the most important members of the Brazilian avantgarde appear in the film, including singer Caetano Veloso and artist Lygia Clark. Also included are some of Oiticica’s friends from the Mangueira shanty town, whose participation influenced Oiticica in his work.
- Parangolé is a slang term meaning an animated situation and sudden confusion and/or agitation between people.”
transcript/translation:
”The series of works is to make intelligible what I am. I become to know myself better through what I do. Actually, I don’t know wwhat I am, because if it is an invention I am not able to know; if I knew what these things were, they would no longer be an invention. Their existence makes the invention possible.”
”the hammers of the yellow
the paths of the red
the entanglment of the green
the nude zulus of the blue”
”The Parangolé wasn’t something to put on a body just to be shown, the experience of wearing it to the person who is watching the other putting it on, or those who put things on at the same time are simultaneous experiences, multi-experiences; the body is not a support for the work, on the contrary, it is the total incorporation. It is the incorporation of the body in the work and the work in the body. I call it in-corporation.”
”reticules
nets non-nets
reticular air areas
warps wefts nets
areas reticulairs
reticulair
necklace of small squares
beads cubicles
areas
air
warps wefts nets
disarticularea
of real areas
the face implodes
kaleidoscopic chameleon…”
”The disintegration of the picture was actually the disintegration of painting; it is irreversible, there is no possibility or reason to go back to painting or sculpting.”
”When Mario Pedrosa says that Brazil is sentenced to Modernity he is saying something very important, because in reality, he means that the only way is to go forward, or in other words, to experiment. There is no reason for Brazil to go backwards.”
”Non-contemplative situations
The spectator becoming a participant
Propositions instead of pieces
Propose/propose
Non-ritualistic practices
The artist no longer a creator of objects
Proposer of non-anti-contemplative practices
Discoveries only suggested in the open
Simple and general propositions not yet completed
Situations to be lived on”
”The invention is immune to dilution. An invention proposes another invention, it is a condition which Nietzsche called the ‘tragic artist’.”
Sensorial, Supra-Sensorial,
Hélio-Sensorial
Analyzing Oiticica in Action by Inge Hinterwaldner
Contributed by
Juan Pablo Macías