Subterrânea: towards an effective state of emergency

Abstract

This paper attempts to deal with Hélio Oiticica’s category “subterrânea”, seeking to perceive the way it relates itself with the political purposes of the artist’s works. Therefore, subterranean (“subterrânea”) will be treated as a state of emergency, a state of latency, with which Oiticica tries to create a concept of “people”, one where there would be no class divisions, no minorities or majorities, but a desiring collectivity, whose bodies seek happiness, that is, na effective state of emergency.