Immersive installation by Hélio Oiticica at Pulitzer Art Foundation

2 March 2022

Assembly Required, on view at the Pulitzer Art Foundation from 4 March to 31 July, features nine artists and collectives whose work invites active participation from the viewer. Created between the 1950s and the present, the artworks respond to distinct social and political moments, from unrest in the United States during the Vietnam War to Peru’s military dictatorship. The artists offer unique perspectives on social change, addressing the need for optimism and hope in the face of global tensions.

Through his 1978 work Penetrável Macaléia, Hélio Oiticica transforms his viewers into participants by emboldening them to experience the work with all their senses. The participant both physically manipulates the structure by opening and closing one side of its mesh and metal cube, while also inhabiting the space and allowing their vision of the outside world to be transformed through the color mesh screens.

Throughout this immersive exhibition, members of the public will interact with the artworks and each other while sharing new experiences. Ultimately, Assembly Required poses questions about how art allows us to imagine new ways of being in the world.

Assembly Required includes work by Francis Alÿs, Rasheed Araeen, Siah Armajani, Tania Bruguera and INSTAR, Lygia Clark, Hélio Oiticica, Yoko Ono, Lygia Pape, and Franz Erhard Walther.

Find further information here.

Image: Hélio Oiticica, Penetrável Macaléia, 1978, Stainless steel, colored metal screens, sand, gravel, bricks, and plants. Cube: 86 1/2 x 86 1/2 x 86 1/2 inches (220 x 220 x 220 cm). Overall install dimensions variable. Edition of 5 © Hélio Oiticica, Photograph by Alise O'Brien © Pulitzer Arts Foundation and Alise O'Brien Photography