Espaços virtuais. Cantos II B (Virtual Spaces. Corners II B)

The series Espaços virtuais. Cantos (Virtual Spaces. Corners), 1967-1968, was planned by Cildo Meireles towards the end of 1967 and consists of 44 drawn projects, in which he takes a critical approach towards Euclidean geometry as the basis for western art, highlighting the idea of the virtual, depending on participation and movement by the viewer. The work is based on a multi-sensory approach to the artistic object, alongside an emphasis on the body taken from the artistic output of other Brazilian artists such as Lygia Clark and Hélio Oiticica. One of the objectives of Virtual Spaces. Corners is interactivity: viewers have to use their own bodies to investigate the perception of this real space recreated in the piece, in order to lend it coherence. This series is the first example in Meireles’ works of the expansion of the Brazilian Neo-Concretist discourse. In 1968, the artist did a three-dimensional version of the series, with three full-scale pieces, which he included in the exhibition at the Rio de Janeiro Museum of Modern Art in 1969, dedicated to the artists selected for the 6^th Young Artists Biennale in Paris. A little later he included it at the exhibition organised by the Brazilian Art Critics Association and the Salão da Bússola, where Meireles presented Espaços virtuais. Cantos I, II, III, under the title Nowhere Is My Home, I, II, III.

Carmen Fernández Aparicio