At the beginning of the “Tropicalia” movement, experimental writer and poet Mário Chamie (1933?2011) evoked the concept that Gilberto Freyre (1900?87) believed [see the ICAA digital archive “Em tôrno de um novo conceito de tropicalismo” (doc. no. 1075041)], thus differentiating it from Tropicália, the popular music of Caetano Veloso, which developed forty years afterward. Despite the complexity of, and the critique inherent in, the new proposal, Chamie detected an ambiguous stance that was both nationalistic and international.
Tropicália is the name that Hélio Oiticica gave to an installation he presented in April 1967 during the Nova Objectividade Brasiliera exhibition organized by MAM-RJ (Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro) [see Oiticica’s text “Esquema geral da nova objetividade” (doc. no. 1110372)]. Coincidentally that is the same title that the singer-songwriter (1967) gave to his musical album (distributed in 1968). Incorporating theatre and film, the cultural movement called Tropicalism or Tropicália became known through MPB (popular Brazilian music).
[As a complementary reading on this movement that influenced the 1960s and 1970s, see in the ICAA digital archive this anonymous article, “O tropicalismo é nosso, viu?” (doc. no. 1110422); and the text by Oiticica himself, “Tropicália” (doc. no. 1074985)].