Tropicália, Penetrables PN 2 ‘Purity is a myth’ and PN 3 ‘Imagetical’

Hélio Oiticica was a Brazilian artist and theorist who dismantled the boundary between artwork and viewer through immersive, participatory environments. Beginning with geometric abstractions in the 1950s, he evolved toward experiential installations he called Penetrables and Parangolés, fabric structures and wearable garments designed to be inhabited and moved through. His practice rejected the autonomy of the art object in favor of sensory engagement and collective experience, positioning the body as both medium and site of aesthetic encounter. Oiticica's radical reframing of artistic participation became foundational to postwar experimental art practice.

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil