[-empyre-] Neoconcrete

["arteonline" <arteonline@arteonline.arq.br>]

The Neoconcrete

I would like to say that I am carioca. It means that I was born in Rio de
Janeiro. Jorge and Lucio are paulistas. They were born in São Paulo. I never
met Jorge or Lucio out of web. Rio de Janeiro is more less six hours far
from São Paulo, by bus. I am telling this because it is interesting to know
that Brazilian Concrete Art and Poetry was created and developed in São
Paulo.

Here in Rio de Janeiro we had the Neoconcrete:

At the end of the decade of fifty, the cariocas  launched the  Manifesto
Neoconcrete.It was launched in the Sunday Supplement of the Periodical of
Brazil of 23 of March of 1959. The Manifesto Neoconcrete, was based in
Merleau-Ponty's Philosophy. Its intention were to recover the human,
rehabilitating the sensitive  disqualified since Plato and try to found a
real knowledge. The idea was to revitalize the relationship of the subject
(Artist / Poet)  with her/ his work. It denied that their association
constituted a formally organized group. They called for a revitalization of
art practice, expressive form and individual experience and an intuitive
response to the creative act and the work of art.

The first I Exposition of Neoconcrete Art had the participation of Lygia
Clark, Lygia Pape, Amílcar de Castro, Franz Weissmann, Reynaldo Jardim,
Sergio Camargo, Theon Spanudis and Ferreira Gullar.  They were the founders
of the moviment but Aluísio Carvão, Carlos Fernando Fortes de Almeida,
Cláudio Melo e Souza, Décio Vieira, Hélio Oiticica, Hércules Barsotti, Osmar
Dillon, Roberto Pontual and Willys de Castro participated of the moviment
too.

Mário Pedrosa (Brazilian critic of Art) observed, with his habitual acuity,
that the art neoconcrete
was "the pre-history of Brazilian art". Such definition can not be
understood in terms of literal, it underlines the radical character of the
neoconcrete action:  prehistoric in the measure that questions the beddings
of the existing artistic language and considers a return to the "start" of
the art.

Lygia Pape, interviewed by me in the beginning of the decade of 90, told:
"We separate from the group concrete of São Paulo because they wanted to
create a ten years project of work to the future.  The group of Rio thought
that it was excessive rationalism .  We wanted to work with  intuition, more
untied.  We changed much information;  we  had a certain impregnation in the
measure that one talked with the other.  Neoconcreto did not appear by
chance, also it was not a thing that we elaborate and later we start to work
in it.  We  work  experimentally before and when we thought that the works
were ready,  Gullar that was poet, "Copy-desk" of  Jornal do  Brasil,
wrote/write very well and studied the theory of  art, was in charge of
writing a text that had with the work of everybody _ a posterior text to the
Art works.  It had one total freedom, nothing was a dogma.  Everybody
invented.  We  do not work  with conventional categories.  In the sculpture,
the idea was to destroy the base _ to make an object that thus was called
but that it could be rank in any position.  The painting also would not be
more involved for a frame, would advance in the space.  I invented a book,
call "Book of  Creation", it tell the creation of the world without words,
only with plastic arts, half poetry.  This direction of invention, of
creation was what really  characterized the movement.  At that time the
thought that a picture existed to be a painting in the wall, for mere
contemplation was true yet .  It did not have the sense of direct
participation, the use of different materials was still unknow;  then
everything  gave a great direction of freedom.  At that time it was not
easy,  we had the world in opposition to us."

(By the way Jim, Lygia Pape was one of the best friends of Helio Oiticica,
the creator of Tropicália which had a philosophical approach After this
Caetano Veloso created the very well known Tropicalism.)

Theon Spanudis wrote about the Poetry Neoconcrete

"If we compare a poem neoconcrete with a poem concrete, we will have to
evidence that the poem neoconcreto is less structural, less material, less
verbal, less rational and, in a certain direction less static .  The poem
neoconcrete abandons the structure and is much more dynamic.  It is less
verbal, because in the poem concrete, the verbal elements not only qualify
each other, but they create, also the dynamic tensions of attraction and
repulse to each other. This dynamic and unstable set is, at the same time,
in spite of its dynamism and instability, something of static as joint. The
tensions are inside of it, but the set is something static.   For the same
reason the poem neoconcrete is less rational than the concrete.  The poem
neoconcrete communicates more for the interior time, for the existential
time, it is materialized more spacial expressivity than verbal one. That
kind of  communication is also the reason of being less rational than the
poem concrete."

I would like to translate the complete text, but it is very difficult. If
one of you want the text in Portuguse I can send.  In fact what I would like
to say is that we had here in Rio de Janeiro the Neoconcrete . Theon
Spanudis and Ferreira Gullar can be considered at that time Neoconcrete
Poets. Perhaps the difference between the two kind of poetry styles is just
the difference between Cariocas and Paulistas. However the Poetry Concrete
is much more known than the Poetry Neoconcrete, but the Art Neoconcrete
(paintings, sculptures, engravers, etc) is very well considered and studied.

Urls:

Helio Oiticica:
http://www.universes-in-universe.de/doc/oiticica/e_oitic1.htm
http://www.universes-in-universe.de/doc/oiticica/e_oitic4.htm
http://www1.uol.com.br/bienal/24bienal/nuh/inuhoiticic02a.htm

I did not found any URL about Neoconcrete in English.

If you do not understand my English, please ask me your doubts.

Regina