This text by art critic Paulo Venâncio Filho, written for the joint 1989 exhibition of Tunga (1952–2016) and Cildo Meireles held in Belgium, addresses the vision of Brazilian art within Brazil and from abroad, among other matters. Venâncio Filho starts out by analyzing how Brazil appropriated European modernism in what can be seen as a tendency toward “lateral situations” in Brazilian art, according to the critic. Works by Cildo and by Tunga not only raise this issue but also address certain historical impasses such as the crossroads of Constructivism and the impossibility of an authentic form of Pop art to emerge in Brazil. In Venâncio Filho’s view, these works develop something akin to “situations at the limit”; the meaning of their operations lies somewhere between the visual and the material.

As the son of a Brazilian ethnologist, Conceptual artist and sculptor Cildo Meireles lived in many different parts of the country, although mainly in Brasilia, where he studied at the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes with painter Vicente do Rego Monteiro, among others. He eventually settled in Río de Janeiro. Meireles gained public recognition in the late sixties for decidedly political installations that addressed the censorship, killings, and oppression that riddled the country for two decades (specifically, from 1964 to 1985), in a certain way. Meireles is indisputably one of the Brazilian artists who is most internationally well known. Five years after producing his “insertions,”  Meireles’s  text “Eureka/Blindhotland” was distributed as part of the catalogue to the exhibition of the same name, organized by the Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro in 1975 (see ICAA digital archive doc. no. 1110594). In that text, he explains how he envisioned his operations at the limit between vision and touch. Later, after having gained a certain degree of critical recognition, Meireles published a polemical text where he explained his intentions in the works “Cruzeiro do Sul” (1980) (doc. no. 776747).

Since the nineties, Brazilian artist Tunga (b. 1952) has been widely known internationally. His career in art began in the late sixties and his first solo show was held in the seventies. His work in held within the collections of a number of international museums. A permanent pavilion at Inhotim in Minas Gerais is dedicated solely to his work.

Art critic Paulo Venancio Filho (b. 1953) began publishing essays and articles in the seventies. He is currently one of the most active figures in art criticism and curating in Brazil. 

Other texts by Venâncio Filho on Brazilian art include “Iole de Freitas: a imagem da ideia e a realidade da imagem” (ICAA digital archive doc. no. 1110959), “Lugar nenhum: o meio da arte no Brasil” (doc. no. 1110689), and articles in A parte do fogo, a journal to which Filho contributes, along with other critics and artists (doc. no. 1110674).