This manifesto was written and released on the occasion of the exhibition Agora I: Brasil 70/75, organized by Roberto Pontual, Olívio Tavares de Araújo, Márcio Sampaio, João Câmara Filho, and Aline Figueiredo, held at the Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro (MAM-Rio) in 1976. Also known as the “Manifesto contra a crítica de Arte,” the text was reprinted in the third issue of the magazine Malasartes, whose editors—Carlos Zilio, Rubens Gerchman, Cildo Meireles, Waltércio Caldas, and Carlos Vergara—were among the signers of the document. The manifesto enjoyed the support of many of the most important artists active in Rio at the time, which support the critical position of that generation on the art world and its way of functioning. The exhibition Arte Agora I: Brasil 70–75 was more important for its repercussions than for the work it contained. The show was the first in a series of three exhibitions coordinated by Pontual. The second, which was entitled Visão da Terra, was held the next year, and the last was entitled América Latina: Geometria Sensível.
A text entitled “Manifesto” is also relevant to this statement. That text discusses the response of art critic Roberto Pontual to the initial statement in an article published in the Jornal do Brasil. In his text, Pontual asserts that the polemic around the show was “superficial” [see doc. no. 1111318].
