The eleventh issue of Nervo Óptico shows the sequential photographic record of a performance presented by Flávio Pons, Cláudio Goulart and Vera Chaves Barcellos in Amsterdam in February 1978. Entitled On Ice, the event consisted of a gradual accumulation of rectangular layers of flexible material on the arms, legs, torso and head of a performer whose face was never shown, ending in the performer’s collapse. There are two series of photos here, separated by the title of the work. One series has eight images shot wide-angle, with the performer standing on a frozen surface (river? lake?). The other series has only six images, with the individual shot in close-up, seated and later lying down, until the piece ends in a final sideward collapse.

With this issue, Nervo Óptico returned to its monthly schedule and usual format, along with its characteristic focus on black and white photography and absence of text. This group work, On Ice, unquestionably pertains to the trend founded by Hélio Oiticica around 1964 with his layers of colors or “Parangolés.” Transformed by the movement of the body, these layers become essential in this Grupo N.O. work, which takes on an international flavor by being created outside the artists’ regular sphere of operations. One of the artists, Flávio Pons (b. 1947), based in Amsterdam since 1975, had shown his work at the Dutch gallery Other Books and So. Along with the artist who still lived in Brazil, Cláudio Goulart (b. 1954), Pons kept on presenting performance art through the 1980s. 

Under the epigraph “Publication open to the dissemination of new visual poetics,” Nervo Óptico was published monthly in Porto Alegre (Rio Grande do Sul) for a total of 13 issues (from April 1977 to September 1978). The journal was created by a group of artists who identified themselves with the journal’s initials, N.O. The participants in Nervo Óptico included Vera Chaves Barcellos (b. 1938), Carlos Asp (b. 1949), Carlos Pasquetti (b. 1948), Clovis Dariano (b. 1950), Jesús Escobar (b. 1956), Flávio Pons (b. 1947), Mara Alvares (b. 1948), Romanita Martins (b. 1940) and Telmo Lanes (b. 1955).

The content of Nervo Óptico was basically visual, reproducing works by the group or invited artists, almost all including the language of photography, whether as artwork in itself or as photographic documentation of performances. The publication created a space for debate about contemporary art events far from the values that prevailed in the art market and the demand for collectible objects. Nervo Óptico focused on conceptual art, thus creating its own instrument of legitimation.

All 13 issues of the Porto Alegre publication Nervo Óptico are available in the ICAA digital archive: see “[Em manifestaçao realizada em dezembro último...]” by the Grupo N.O. [doc. no. 1110913]; y “Manifesto” [doc. no. 1110690]. The second issue of this journal presented work by Mara Álvares [doc. no. 1110914]; the third issue, work by Carlos Asp [doc. no. 1110915]; the fourth issue, work by Carlos Pasquetti [doc. no. 1110916]; the fifth issue, work by Telmo Lanes [doc. no. 1110917]; the sixth issue, work of Clovis Dariano [doc. no. 1110918]; the seventh issue, work by Vera Chaves Barcellos [doc. no. 1110919]; the eighth issue represented an N.O. group exhibition held at the Galeria Eucatexpo [doc. no. 1110920]; the ninth issue included an artist who was not a group member, Maria Tomaselli [doc. no. 1110921]; and the tenth issue was a flyer in the journal Ephemera published in the Netherlands [doc. no. 1110922].