Hélio Oiticica, Topázion-Flor for Haroldo de Campos, 1975

Elisabeth Sussman: Topázion-Flor are a series of slides that embody the atmosphere, the sort of poetry of the moment that he wanted to show was part of his experience the times he used cocaine.

Narrator: Elisabeth Sussman.

Elisabeth Sussman: So he openly embraced cocaine. He wrote about cocaine, the different kinds of cocaine that he had, the different kinds of experiences that he had, because experience of this sort was very important to him.

Narrator: Oiticica wrote prolifically when he was in New York. A selection of those texts are in the middle of the room. You can also hear the musician Arto Lindsay reading some of them, on the headphones arranged around the table. One thing that becomes clear from the texts was that Oiticica had an intense feeling for rock music, and the musicians themselves—especially Mick Jagger and Jimi Hendrix.

Elisabeth Sussman: He had these ideas that the rock and roll concert was some sort of apotheosis of freedom, that the kind of music and dancing that rock and roll inspired, the activities of the late 60s, early 70s like Woodstock, were what he had imagined as wonderful things back when he was going to the favela and he was interested in samba. This was just, this was like a worldwide revolution of music and living and so this was to him so revolutionary and wonderful. He totally was into it as a fan and as an intellectual thinker.