“The Whitechapel experiment”, the Éden project and the search for a total affective experience.

Abstract

This article aims to analyze Hélio Oiticica’s exhibition “The Whitechapel experiment”, held in 1969, in London, discussing the debate that surrounded its achievement, the reception of the local press at the time, and how it has recently provoked new readings. It is not our intention to reconstitute the show, but to give new meanings to various documents and testimonies, some of which have been little studied, relating them in such a way as to emphasize the importance of Oiticica’s experiences in the United Kingdom for his work in the following years. This article relates to the research I developed in 2015 as a visiting academic at TrAIN/University of the Arts, London, with a grant from Fapesp.

keywords:
Hélio Oiticica; “The Whitechapel experiment”; Éden installation; spectator participation