A major festival of art, music, film, theatre and dance celebrating Tropicalia - the cultural revolution that re-defined Brazilian art, music and fashion in the 1960s and beyond.
click here to view the (past) events (13 Feb -22 May 2006)In February 2006, as Brazil prepares itself for Carnival, the Barbican launched a major, three-month festival entitled
Tropicalia (13 February - 22 May 2006), celebrating a revolutionary movement in Brazilian culture.
Tropicália took its name from an installation created by Brazilian artist, Hélio Oiticica in 1967 and subsequently became the title of one of the most celebrated albums in Brazilian music history, featuring Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa and Os Mutantes.
The
Tropicália movement was a passionate and intelligently articulated response to military dictatorship and the ultimate counter-cultural statement - a true revolution that re-defined Brazilian arts and re-shaped Brazilian identity. It was to be a brief explosion of cultural transformation and upheaval, spanning a period of no more than five years, from 1967 to 1972. Some would say that it ended only a year after it began, with Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil’s arrest in December 1968. What is clear is that
Tropicália changed Brazil forever.
Although the original movement was crushed by an authoritarian regime, the influence and irrepressible spirit of
Tropicália continued to spread. While musical experimenters from David Bowie and David Byrne to Beck and, most recently, The Bees cite the eclectic music of
Tropicália as an influence, the groundbreaking nature of the visual art has only recently begun to be fully appreciated. Ironically, Gilberto Gil, one of the prime architects of
Tropicália and one-time thorn in the side of the then military regime, is now Minister Of Culture in the government of President Lula. In the joyously anarchic spirit of
Tropicália, Gil juggles his music career and politics with some style, regularly getting his guitar out and singing songs in the middle of government meetings. The time to celebrate, to investigate and to reappraise the events and the lasting legacy of
Tropicália has well and truly arrived.
Buy the Tropicália exhibition catalogue at the online bookshop
