In this text, Professor Walter Zanini presents the exhibition 8ª Jovem Arte Contemporânea held in 1974. He states that the exhibition is conceptual at its core, which means it is oriented toward ideas. He believes that the work of the artists featured in the show does not fall within the realm of representation, but rather into postformalist terrain. Zanini explains that these artists are concerned with the formulation of language in semiotic terms. That means that their development is open to the expanding spectrum of methods of communication. They focus on the immaterial rather than on aesthetic concerns. Zanini maintains that due to the critical nature of the experimentation pursued by these artists, the recipient of the message is moved to interact and to participate insofar as art focused on human relations necessarily entails a common search for objectivity. As a result of widespread indifference, institutional selfishness, and lack of critical thinking, practices of this sort are of scant interest to artists and art audiences.

Art critic, historian, and curator Walter Zanini (1925−2013) was the first director of the Museu de Arte Contemporânea (a part of the USP). From that post, which he held from 1963 to 1978, he encouraged the production of emerging artists and supported marginalized forms of artistic expression, from technological and conceptual efforts to multimedia works that made use of visual poetics. Zanini was one of the curators of the first Bienal de São Paulo (1951), and a professor at the Escola de Comunicações e Artes da Universidade de São Paulo (ECA-USP). In an interview-statement [see doc. no. 1111244], Zanini discusses the role he played during his tenure as the director of Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo (MAC-USP) in furthering artistic expression that engaged new media modes of communication. Even during a period marked by authoritarianism and censorship at the hand of the military dictatorship (1964−85), in Zanini’s view, the museum was a place of freedom where experimental works that made use of the new media (experimental art, multimedia) were able to make an impact. The eighth edition of JAC (Young Contemporary Art) took place from December 5 to December 22, 1974, at MAC-USP. The exhibition revolved around proposals submitted by participating artists, although there was no jury and no prizes were given. Participating artists included Genilson Soares, Francisco Iñarra, and Gastão de Magalhâes. The event also featured a pioneering show of video art by Rio de Janeiro-based artists Ângelo de Aquino, Anna Bella Geiger, Fernando Cocchiarale, Ivens Machado, and Sonia Andrade.