Die Kunstfilme von Hélio Oiticica

This thesis examines the super 8 Films that contemporary Brazilian artist Hélio Oiticica made in New York in the 1970s, and the importance of these films in his works. The super 8 Oiticica Films are very important to understanding Oiticica, not only as an artist, but as a filmmaker and his experience with cinema. Despite the vast research on Hélio Oiticica’s Œuvre, his films were largely without academic research. We can see his films as a documentation of his period in New York. Focusing on his works, films, and writing, I investigate how he used his writing to articulate and communicate his artistic process. I will discuss Oiticica’s works since his installation Tropicália was made in Brazil in 1966, and the repercussion approach on the Brazilian Video Art and in Oiticica’s Films, until his Cosmococa multimedia installation. The other point that is analyzed is the question of Brazilian identity, which plays an important role in Oiticica’s works especially in Tropicália, which caused the tropicalism movement in Brazil. I am investigating the contact Oiticica had with Brazilian and American filmmakers and how these experiences influenced his films. During the dissertation, I will point out some of Oiticica’s works such as Parangolés, Bólides, Neyrótica. I will demonstrate the changes in Oiticica’s works during his time in Brazil and America. Furthermore, I will investigate the social and political context in the 1960s and 1970s in Brazil and America. I want to clearly contextualize his films that I focus on, with Experimental Films, American Art and Brazilian Art. My dissertation examines how the new atmosphere, culture, geography, place, landscape, gay movement, underground scene, architecture, national icons, marginalized culture and urban scene in New York influenced Oiticica’s works. My primary theme is how Oiticica’s work with the boundaries of art and his work with international art influenced him with respect to his own films and aesthetics.