Provenance
Galeria Fortes Vilaça, São Paulo
Acquired from the above by the present owner
Catalogue Essay
In 1973, Hélio Oticica and the Brazilian filmmaker Neville D'Almeida collaborated on a number of cinematic environments called Block-Experiences in Cosmococa Programa-in-Progress. These short films give insight into privacy of Oiticica's New York loft, often capturing the presence of cocaine, meticulously lined along the edges of photographs, making reference to the drug's creative capacity. For Oiticica, the Cosmococas were an extension of Neo-Concrete art, leaving behind the cold geometry of Concrete abstraction and bringing the elements of time and viewer participation into the work, thereby creating a new language of art that was useful to society. The Cosmococas are "participatory environments in which elements of relaxation, distraction, consumption, and contingency were key," evincing their intrinsic ties to relational aesthetics and artists like Rirkrit Tiravanija. (Irene V. Small, "Hélio Oticica and Neville D'Almeida's Block-Experiences in Cosmococa Programa-in-Progress", Walter Art Center, 2014)

Hélio Oiticica and Neville D'Almeida

21/CC1 (Trashiscapes / Cosmococa Programa-in-Progress)

c-print mounted on aluminum
30 x 44 3/4 in. (76.2 x 113.7 cm)
Executed 1973-2003, this work is number 1 from an edition of 12.

Estimate
$12,000 - 18,000

Sold for $12,500

Contact Specialist
Kaeli Deane
Head of Sale, Latin American Art
New York
+1 212 940 1352

New York Auction 24 May 2017