Hélio Oiticica describes the origins of his work Tropicália, which he associates with the exhibition, Nova Objetividade Brasileira, and the idea behind this event that was held in Rio de Janeiro in 1967. Oiticica believes that avant-garde styles should be adapted to make them compatible with a Brazilian outlook, and claims to be a pioneer for having been the first to describe the cultural anthropophagy of Oswald de Andrade (1928) as a possible characterization of Brazilian identity. This idea was later expressed in Oswald’s play, O Rei da Vela [The King of the Candle], which was representative of Brazilian social concerns and commitments in the 1930s. The play was directed by José Celso Martinez Corrêa and appropriately staged at the end of the military dictatorship (1983). Oiticica describes other earlier experiences, such as the samba, the hillside (with the inhabitants and architecture of the favelas, or shanty towns), art in the street, and unfinished things related to the creation of his series of wearable paintings or parangolés (as they were called on the street). Speaking of Tropicália, the artist explains that he used a typical tropical scene in an attempt to recreate the experience of moving around the morro [the hillside where the favela is located], therefore creating a sense of the image as it would be seen on a television screen. He believes that elements of this nature could be used to create a uniquely Brazilian language as opposed to the international images (of Pop or Op art) that were widely used by local artists in those days. Oiticica criticizes the way in which his work is incorrectly linked to the “tropical” music movement, condemning its misuse as a fashion commodity. Apropos of this subject, he warns that the existential aspect of experience cannot be packaged and consumed because it is of a “supra-sensory” nature, an idea that is based on total freedom and the ability to overcome a sense of alienation. In his opinion, “tropicality” is much more than macaws and bananas. It is a nonconformist, revolutionary conditioning against the establishment.    

Tropicália is the title of an installation created by the artist Hélio Oiticica (1937–81) for Nova Objetividade Brasileira, the exhibition that was held at the Museu de Arte Moderna in Rio de Janeiro in April 1967. There was actually a song with the same title by the singer-songwriter Caetano Veloso in late 1967, and an album by MPB [Popular Brazilian Music] subsequently composed in mid-1968. The term, coined by Oiticica, inspired the Brazilian cultural movement called Tropicalismo or Tropicália that was originally a force in the field of popular music, and was then adopted by the theater and the movies. 

This essay, which was written in March 1968, but was not published until January 8, 1984, in the supplement of the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper, challenges the suggestion made a month earlier by the journalist Nelson Motta. By claiming to be a pioneer because the essential meaning of his work Tropicália is based on its experiential nature rather than tropical images, Oiticica reaffirms his original idea and seeks to discourage the urgent, superficial, mass consumption unleashed by the uncontrollable popular reaction to “tropicalism.”  

Oiticica uses the term “hybrid” to mean a sterile crossbreeding that bears no fruit and is therefore meaningless, as the total opposite to the idea of a “mishmash” or “mestizo” situation as the melting pot of a multiracial culture, such as the one in Brazil. 

It should be noted that the 1960s Brazilian idea of “New Objectivity” is not the same as the 1920s and 1930s German version, Neue Sachlichkeit that was used during the Weimar Republic (1919–33) to mean a focus on public life in the visual arts, literature, music, and architecture. The original idea of “objectivity” suggests a predilection for the functional, conscious, and useful, which in turn rejects romantic idealism, and at times, verges on objectification.