Trash Devices: Cosmococas and Navilouca

Abstract

The present work sets out to reflect on the relationship modes that a certain area of Brazilian experimental art of the 1970s proposed with respect to mass culture. The central hypothesis of this paper is that the reinscription relationship of art with respect to mass culture works as a way through which art exercises its antagonism towards the social, based on alterity and the resignification of exclusion that the State fosters through censorship. To support this hypothesis, this paper analyzes the Cosmococas by Hélio Oiticica and Neville D’Almeida, and the Navilouca magazine, focusing on the relationship with trash that each work proposes. From the distinction of these two possible relationship modes with trash, the concept of trash devices is presented, which is defined as a linking modality through which experimental art led to the incorporation of the remains and debris of mass culture.

Keywords
Brazilian experimental art; Mass culture; Trash; Cosmococas; Navilouca