Though only three issues of the magazine Malasartes were published, it played an important role in the Rio de Janeiro art scene in 1975 and 1976 due to the quality of the individuals involved in the project, and the biting tone it employed at the height of the military dictatorship in power in Brazil for two decades (1964−85). The magazine was put out by a group of artists and critics who would become key figures in their generation, among them art critics Luiz Paulo Baravelli (b. 1942) and Ronaldo Brito (b. 1949), and artists Rubens Gerchman (1942−2008), Carlos Zilio (b. 1944, recently released from a military prison at the time), Carlos Vergara (b. 1941), and Cildo Meireles (b. 1948). The text by Baravelli and Brito that appeared at the beginning of the first issue consisted of an “Análise do circuito.”
In the layout of this work, Meireles formulates a parallel between image and text. To that end, he makes use of the works Quimera (1974) by Guilherme Vaz; Inserções em circuitos ideológicos 1, projeto Coca-Cola (1970), Inserções em circuitos antropológicos (1971−73), and Blind Hotland n. 3 (1971−73) by Meireles; Sem título (undated) by Tunga (accompanied by a statement); Desenho (1974) by Claudio Paiva; sections of the films Quem acordar primeiro, por favor, me acorde!, Sapore di sale, A estrela d’alva, and A noite do Iguape (undated) by Vicente Pereira; Ilha do Fundão (1969) by Humberto Costa Barros; Telas Brancas (1970) by Teresa Simões; Irmã (1975) by Arthur Barrio; Sem título (undated) by Alfredo Fontes (with a commentary); Sem título (1973) by Luiz Alphonsus; Sad Young Man, Love/Hurt, The Crucifixion, and Self-Portrait w/Jim (undated) by Luiz Fonseca (accompanied by a brief fragment by Silviano Santiago and Luiz Fonseca).