Hélio Oiticica, PN27 Penetrable, Rijanviera, 1979

Elisabeth Sussman: in '78, he went back to Rio. I think the political situation was getting slightly better. He still had family there and so he went back. He seemed to be from all accounts very glad to be back there.

Donna De Salvo: Rijanviera, which is a work that Oiticica makes when he returns to Rio after his time in New York, is a very sublime work. It's more about nature and it seems in a kind of opposition to what you see in Tropicália, which reflects the city and urban environment. But, it is perhaps symbolic of his return to Rio and a calm. When he returned to Rio, he regained his health, which had become increasingly more fragile during the time in New York—perhaps, in that sense, reflects a calm in the artist himself about being back in Rio and creating a new body of work.

Well, you enter Rijanviera, you remove your shoes and you enter. And it has stones that you walk over so there's the sensation of feeling the stones and then entering into the piece, which is equally covered with a fabric. And you walk into water, so you have the experience of walking into the water, penetrating deeper into the piece itself and then of course, emerging back the way that you entered. And I think there's a very meditative quality to this piece, which is very different. It does not have the same kinds of stimuli that one sees in Tropicália. There are no birds, there are no plants. It's very pure.