SCHEDULE OF PUBLIC PROGRAMS FOR HÉLIO OITICICA: TO ORGANIZE DELIRIUM

"I have no place in the world”: On Hélio Oiticica

Friday, July 14: 6:30 pm

In 1969, while living in London, and a year before relocating to New York City, the Brazilian artist Hélio Oiticica wrote, “I have no place in the world.” In conjunction with the exhibition Hélio Oiticica: To Organize Delirium, this panel discussion considers Oiticica’s work in relation to transnationalism and the politics of aesthetics and explores the significance of his work to contemporary art practices. Speakers include scholars Irene V. Small and Frederico Coelho and artists Matheus Rocha Pitta and Lyle Ashton Harris.

Tickets are required ($8 adults; $6 members, students, and seniors).

Film Screening: Hélio Oiticica (2012)

Saturday, July 29: 3 pm

César Oiticica Filho’s first film is a visually striking, found-footage documentary about the filmmaker’s uncle, the Brazilian artist Hélio Oiticica (1937–1980). Through rare archival audio and visual material, the documentary allows Oiticica himself to narrate his life and expound upon his art in his own words. The artist’s commentary guides us through his artistic development and expansive political and aesthetic interests, from his modernist paintings and sculptures in the 1960s to his expanded cinema installations and slide show environments of the 1970s, and from the favelas and the lively street life of Rio de Janeiro, New York City, and London to samba schools and the Tropicália cultural movement. (Dir. César Oiticica Filho. Brazil. Portuguese; English subtitles. 94 min)

Free with Museum admission.

MYTH ASTRAY: A project by Arto Lindsay

September 8–10

In conjunction with Hélio Oiticica: To Organize Delirum, Brazilian-American artist and experimental composer Arto Lindsay devises a series of talks, screenings, and musical performances exploring Tropicália, samba, and the Brazilian avant-garde. Lindsay maps connections between the art, music, and film that arose out of these aesthetic and political movements, which were central to Oiticica’s practice. Contributors include Barbara Browning, Gustavo di Dalva, Christopher Dunn, and Pedro Meira Monteiro. Events will take place in an environment designed by Lindsay for the Susan and John Hess Family Theater.

Complete schedule to be announced on whitney.org. Free with Museum admission.

“Mario Pedrosa: On the Affective Nature of Form,” with Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro

Sunday, September 24: 3 pm

Mário Pedrosa (1900–1981) was one of the most important Latin American thinkers of the 20th century. A public intellectual, Pedrosa was committed to the debate on the future of society in both cultural and political terms. His writings on art and politics were central to the work of artists, including Hélio Oiticica and many of his contemporaries. This talk by curator Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro, director and chief curator of the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros and curator of the thirty-third Bienal de São Paulo (2018), will explore Pedrosa’s life and legacy through an examination of the exhibition Mário Pedrosa: On the Affective Nature of Form, co-curated by Pérez-Barreiro and Michelle Sommer and currently on view at the Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid through October 16. The talk will be followed by a conversation between Pérez-Barreiro and Elisabeth Sussman, Curator and Sondra Gilman Curator of Photography, Whitney Museum of American Art, and Donna De Salvo, Deputy Director for International Initiatives and Senior Curator, Whitney Museum of American Art.

Tickets are required and will be available on whitney.org.

All programs take place in the Museum’s Susan and John Hess Family Theater, Floor 3, unless noted otherwise.