Che in HO: Heroism and Resistance in Hélio Oiticica’s interartistic project.

Abstract

After the assassination of Ernesto Che Guevara in 1967, his myth became a central theme for political and artistic movements active between the 60s and 70s, mainly in Latin America. In the work of Hélio Oiticica (HO), we see intertextual elements that evoke the figure of this revolutionary, referring to the social context of oppression experienced in Brazil during the military dictatorship. Through some literary works, correspondences, heliotexts and references to the Apocalipopótese event, we will interpret two plastic works such as Guevarcália and the Bandeira Guevara commissioned from the artist Claudio Tozzi and incorporated by the author in several events. By analyzing these works, we will try to decipher some conceptual topics of Oiticica's artistic position in the debate between committed and marginal artists, observing the heterogeneous creative reaction to the military coup of 1964. Thus, we will briefly examine the figure of the artist, the hero, the revolutionary and the marginal considering the reiteration and reformulation of Guevarian iconography and mythology in the plastic and literary work of Hélio Oiticica.