Concrete Art in Political Confrontations and Spaces of Intervention In the Cold War scenario, constructive poetics in Brazil and in Spain developed an aesthetic option that was com- mitted to transforming the modes of sensitive perception starting from radical formal investigation. Certain ins- titutions and events such as the São Paulo Biennial played a decisive role as spaces of visibility for these produc- tions, and enabled connections to be made that would end up strengthening the formative and experimental ideal of Geometrical Abstraction in different territories.

seeks the mere excitement of pleasure or displeasure’ ( Manifesto, 1952) and defended art as a means of knowledge and an imaginary exercise, de- manding that it stopped ‘representing’ to ‘become reality.’ In 1956 the First National Exhibition of held in São Paulo and assembled all the groups with similar aesthetic programmes. Following the dismemberment of the Front Group (1954-1957) of Rio de Janeiro, among whose associates were , , , , Hé- In the early fifties certain Latin American regions directly linked to the cultural milieux lio Oiticica, César Oiticica, Aluísio Galvão of Western Europe began to discuss the potential of the Constructivist programme in and Décio Vieira, the Neo-Concrete Group the aftermath of World War Two. At the height of the Cold War some aesthetic options was founded, and in 1959 radicalised its seemed to reveal stances on the apparent disputes that perforce divided the planet. aesthetic proposals. However, if the pos- The first São Paulo Biennial held in 1951 was a key element in the shaping of Cons- sibility of conceiving a constructive artistic tructivism and had a wide repercussion in most of . Conflicting aesthetic project in Latin America, a different way of programmes were publicly presented at the biennial. On the one hand, Expressive Abs- understanding the connection between traction, the formal characteristics of which were indirectly linked to (and perhaps even the arts and society arose in the fifties, complemented) the American policy that championed an art of ‘free forms.’ The anti- this enthusiasm would be short-lived due Marxist and depoliticised dimension of this supposed freedom was subtly defended in to the appearance of military dictatorships Latin America by means of incentives such as those promoted by Nelson Rockefeller for in several countries during the following the creation of museums of . On the other, Constructive Abstraction, rooted decades, which entailed the suspension in Russian , that rejected the individuality of the artist and proposed the of democratic and civil rights, the impo- search for a new means of expression that would match the technical feelings of the sition of censorship and an acute state period, hoping to enlarge the field of sensitive perception. of sterilising repressive violence. At that The first forays of Concrete poetry were promoted after the first edition of the biennial by the Noigandres Group, initially composed of the poets Augusto de Campos, Harol- do de Campos and Décio Pignatari, who transcended the limits of words and establis- hed other poetic spaces of enunciation. In 1952 the Grupo Ruptura of Concrete and New acquisitions was founded in São Paulo by Lothar Charoux, , Anatol Wladyslaw, Leopold Haar, Féjer, Luiz Saciloto and . The group took Lygia Pape. Sin título (16), 1957 a stand against ‘hedonistic representational art, the product of unwarranted taste, that point artists began to occupy restricted going on in other parts of the world, parti- public space, employing a range of tactics cularly with other aspects of Geometrical Bibliography of collective and networked resistance in a Abstraction that engaged directly with manner totally different to the previous ar- his oeuvre. Until the sixties the AA.VV. Arte Concreta Paulista: tistic productions that strove to articulate section of the São Paulo biennial would documentos. other experimental spaces—a new art and continue to present Constructivist pro- São Paulo: Cosac & Naify, Centro a new reality. posals and contributions by Concrete and Universitario Maria Antonia da USP, In many of the European countries that Neo-Concrete groups, despite the fact 2002. had already suffered dictatorships in the that Franz Weissmann’s sculpture Cubo fifties, Constructivist Art also represented Vacío (Emptied Cube) of 1951, one of the Álvarez, Soledad. the possibility of conceiving another reali- first Brazilian Constructivist , Jorge Oteiza. Pasión y razón. ty. In the fifties the United States was be- had been rejected at the first edition, that San Sebastián: Editorial Nerea, ginning to support Spain by means of eco- same year. The coincidences between 2003. nomic incentives and influential positions Weissmann’s and Oteiza’s ideas, especia- on the world stage as a result of the strict lly the emptying of structures to emphasi- Amaral, Arancy [comis.]. anti-Communist policies of the Franco re- se their negative, the void, were simulta- Projeto construtivo na arte (1950- gime. neously acknowledged by the national and 1962). Basque artist and writer Jorge Oteiza international sculpture prizes at the afore- Rio de Janeiro, MAM; São Paulo: (1908-2003), a direct opponent of the mentioned fourth edition of the biennial. Pinacoteca do Estado, 1977. Franco dictatorship, was convinced of the In the sixties Oteiza began to devote him- political role artists played and believed self to aesthetic and linguistic research Brito, Ronaldo. that it was not the work itself, painting or and to Basque political and social causes. Neoconcretismo vértice e ruptura do sculpture, that was radical but the possi- Throughout that decade several of his projeto construtivo brasileiro. ble training artists experienced that would works would be censured. His text ‘Ejerci- São Paulo: Cosac & Naify, 1999. enable them to act directly in society. cios espirituales en un túnel’ of 1966 for, Oteiza’s oeuvre proved decisive when it instance, was not published until 1980, Guilbaut, Serge. came to defending Basque cultural identi- when it was printed underground although De cómo Nueva York robó la idea de ty in a strongly repressive dictatorial con- it was widely circulated in photocopied arte moderno. text that hoped to impose cultural homo- form. Valencia: Tirant lo Blanch, 2007. geneity, and suffered several restrictions Despite the geographical distance bet- from the fifties onwards. When Oteiza was ween the Constructivist poetics of Bra- Gullar, Ferreira. deeply involved in researching Abstract Art zilian Concrete artists and Oteiza, they Experiência Neoconcreta: momen- he was asked to produce the statues for were moving in the same direction: the to-limite da arte. the basilica of Arantzazu. The statues he gap created in the structure highlights the São Paulo: Cosac & Naify, 2007. began in 1952 would be rejected by the crack, the fold, the supposedly empty ex- church two years later and would not be panse between the elements that in the Zulaika, Joseba [ed.]. completed until 1969. His project strove sculptures and the plastic compositions Oteiza’s Selected Writings. to introduce a new aesthetic spirituality alike become open receptive spaces where Nevada: Center for Basque Studies, in popular religious feeling, leading him imaginary interventions are conceivable. University of Nevada, Reno, 2003. to produce experimental sculpture with This is where these works operate to make lighter and more open units that derive the sensitive perception of previously invi- from hundreds of small models to form sible spaces possible. Links what would be known as his Experimental Laboratory of works made in stone or thin www.museooteiza.com sheets of metal. Oteiza worked on the sculpture Apertu- ra o desocupación del cilindro (Opening or Emptying of the Cylinder) in 1957, the same year he travelled to Brazil to promote his Propósito experimental (Experimental Proposition), 1956-1957 at the 4th São Paulo Biennial. At a time in which Spain was cut off from foreign influences his trip brought him into contact with what was